One by one a flame was lit on small white candles as community members — some in recovery and some who have lost loved ones to substance use disorder — gathered together to recognize a drug epidemic that has taken so much from many here.
Resident Felicia Velez organized the gathering on the Brown County Courthouse lawn on Aug. 31 in observance of Drug Overdose Awareness Day. The community was invited to join a group of those in recovery, those who have lost loved ones and local recovery groups to share their stories and offer resources for help.
“It’s never too late to ask for help,” Velez said.
“They shouldn’t be embarrassed to ask for help. Asking for help is a big step, it’s a very brave step.”
Velez lost her brother to addiction six years ago and now another family member is struggling.
“For me that’s why it was important,” Velez said of organizing the event, which she did in two weeks with the help of Brown County Chief Probation Officer Jennifer Acton and the Brown County Recovery and Wellness Coalition.
“You see it every day. You see it in the news, in the paper. I just felt very passionate about this,” she said.
Velez said working to help others get help and bring awareness to addiction in Brown County is a way to honor her brother and others lost to substance use disorder.
“They didn’t die in vain,” she said.
Representatives from local and area recovery groups Do Something Inc., Recover Out Loud and Transformational Living Ministries out of Columbus also attended to share resources.
“We’re out here fighting it on the streets in their memory so that another parent, another brother, another sister, another cousin, another best friend doesn’t have to get that phone call,” said Do Something’s Melissa Tatman.
“If you know anyone that needs our help, we’ve got information and we can do our best to help.”
Do Something runs the Launch House Recovery Engagement Center located at 153 E. Gould St.
Do Something Inc. created the Launch House as a space in the community where anyone could go to find help overcoming addiction, for themselves or a loved one. The nonprofit Do Something was created by Michelle and Cory Joy following the loss of their oldest son to a heroin overdose in 2017. The Launch House idea grew out of that movement.
“There was no longer wondering why this was happening, we had to get our hands involved. We had to get involved to find out what we could do to make a difference,” Tatman said.
Tatman also is in charge of weekly recovery support meetings, known as Battlefield For Freedom, for people struggling with addiction at New Life Community Church. Meetings are 7:30 p.m. every Tuesday.
Do Something also had a table at the courthouse with Narcan, an overdose reversing drug, available. There are now two boxes in the community that have Narcan available 24/7: St. David’s Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom and the Launch House.
Narcan is the trade name of Naloxone.
The boxes are a result of work done by the recovery and wellness coalition’s treatment and support subcommittee. Though Naloxone is available at Centerstone, the county health department and at CVS, coalition chair Melissa Sarnecki said there can still be barriers to accessing the life saving medication.
“For people to have to come in and ask someone for it due to all of this shame associated with substance use. This way they don’t have to talk to anyone, they can just get it anonymously,” she said.
Tatman said that elderly residents should also have Narcan in their homes if they are prescribed opioids because they could forget they have taken their medicine, causing an overdose.
“You don’t have to be an addict to have Narcan,” Amanda Venable said.
Venable is Tatman’s daughter and has been clean for two and a half years.
Sarnecki works for Centerstone as as the team leader and therapist in child and family services. The coalition has been around since 2016. The group meets the second Thursday of every month. The coalition has two other subcommittees: Law enforcement and prevention/education, which report to the coalition monthly.
Sarnecki said substance use disorder has increased in the county since the COVID-19 pandemic hit home here. At the beginning of the pandemic, Centerstone had to see their clients online and not everyone had internet access to do that.
“There were a lot of clients that we weren’t able to see. I know rates of use have increased, rates of overdose have increased,” Sarnecki said.
“The isolation has made use worse, not being able to go to their meetings and have that routine has really negatively impacted people.”
Recovery groups are meeting in person now with other meetings happening online. The Brown County Treatment and Resource Guide is available www.browncountyhealthdept.org under the “Opioid crisis” tab.
This year four fatal overdoses have happened in Brown County.
Chasing recovery
On the lawn stories of loss and recovery were shared before a candlelight vigil. The group gathered and prayed together before taking the vigil on a walk in Nashville. Names of those lost to addiction were called out before the vigil began.
Venable was one of the first to share her story of recovery.
“I don’t know how I made it out alive. I really don’t,” she said.
Since she has been in recovery she has her driver’s license again, custody of her child and is about to graduate college. She credited her mom and Brown County for helping her recover. She now works with Tatman getting others help.
“I would call my mom and say ‘I can’t do this anymore. I need to come and get clean.’ She would detox me in her bed and sit over top me, pray over me while I shook. This was it. I would just come here,” she said.
“Brown County, it has the potential to do so much for addicts because it is small and welcoming. … Brown County saved my life, literally. It’s where I rebuilt myself.”
Resident Chad Guffey also spoke about his recovery and how he is on track to being three years clean. He changed his entire world to make that happen.
“You have got to change your people, places and things. That is what I’ve done,” he said.
Missey Hoffmann-Haines is the Recover Out Loud chapter leader in Brown County. ROL is another local recovery community that organizes activities and events for those living a sober life.
“This group was a group who taught me how to live my life clean and sober. I could get clean and sober as long as I isolated at home, but I didn’t know how to come out in the real world and be clean and sober. Recover Out Loud gave me that back,” she said while standing in the middle of the group gather.
Hoffmann-Haines also works in the Brown County and Morgan County jails talking with inmates about recovery.
“I got clean because I went to jail and I am so thankful today for the detective who did his job, the prosecutor who did their job and the judge who did their job. Without those three people I probably wouldn’t be standing here telling you my story,” she said on Aug. 31.
“Since my release from incarceration I have dedicated my life to recovery. Today I chase my recovery just as hard as I once chased drugs because that’s what keeps me clean and sober today.”
But her journey has not always been easy. Just nine days before her one year sobriety anniversary her best friend died of an overdose. Hoffmann-Haines said watching his mother, who was also an addict in recovery, get through that loss clean and sober inspired her.
“I realized if that woman can go through that clean and sober, I could get through anything clean and sober,” she said.
ROL was started by Brown County resident Ginny Kelp’s son John Cunningham who has been clean for 10 years, she shared on Aug. 31.
“My son is walking hope,” she said.
“He had a horrible name here, he had a horrible name in Columbus and he had a horrible name in Edinburgh, but he cleaned up his life and jail also did it for him, he worked programs in there. He made that choice to make himself a better person.”
Barb Foley lost her son Kyle to an overdose in July 2017. Kyle had struggled with substance use disorder off and on for years. He would go to different treatment centers and was prepared to go to another treatment center the next day when he passed.
“I know he wanted to get clean so bad. We shared a lot of tears together,” Foley said.
Seated next to Foley was her oldest son Greg Rea and his wife Tricia. The two are both sober now.
“I am proud of you all. Just keep reaching out whenever everybody needs help because there’s always somebody out there. I want to thank these two (Greg and Tricia), they are both in recovery, my son and daughter-in-law, I am proud of you,” Foley said.
Patrick Jackson was known to be a “troublemaker” and was once seen as someone who would never be clean.
“Through the grace of God I survived overdoses and I survived a lot more than that,” he said.
While in jail, Jackson said it was easy to focus on God and recovery, but that changed when he was released.
“I had to change people, places and things. By the grace of God I had the opportunity to do that,” he said.
Now he is 13 months sober and helps manage a sober Christian living house through Transformational Living Ministries in Columbus. He goes to meetings and sponsors others in their recovery journey.
“Don’t ever give up on them,” he said.
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Do Something Inc.’s Hope Fest is returning this month.
The event will happen on Sept. 25 at Brown County Schools’ Eagle Park. It will feature a recovery walk, live music and a softball tournament featuring recovery community members and the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.
The recovery walk kicks the day off at noon.
Do Something Inc. is a local nonprofit which operates the Launch House in Nashville that helps those in addiction recovery.
Read more about Hope Fest in the Sept. 15 the Brown County Democrat.
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