MANSFIELD — Elaine Surber said she was “blown away” by the number of donors Catalyst Life Services received for its annual Celebrate Recovery event.
“It’s amazing the support we got when we just started asking,” she said. “My heart is just so touched by the number of people who wanted to be involved and to support us and our clients.”
Catalyst Life Services’ executive vice president and the director of substance use disorder services, Surber said the annual “Celebrate Recovery” event continues to grow each year.
Catalyst Life Services hosted its third annual Celebrate Recovery event on Wednesday for National Recovery Month at the New Beginnings campus.
New Beginnings offers residential and outpatient treatments, including a withdrawal management facility, for men and women in addiction recovery from alcohol or other drugs.
Catalyst Life Services CEO Laura Montgomery introduced a special guest on Wednesday afternoon to dedicate a “peace pole” at New Beginnings.
Peace pole to become meditation space for residents
Dan Dickman from the Peace Fellowship Church said the Peace Pole project has gained popularity since around the Vietnam War era.
“It’s a pole to be inspirational about change in our community,” Dickman said. “The themes are kind of similar to Peace on My Block, how it takes multiple people to keep a neighborhood safe, it takes everyone encouraging goodness to celebrate recovery.
“You can design what message you want surrounding the peace pole. The one we have for Catalyst is a theme of nurturing goodness — which I think recovery is all about. It’s reclaiming the goodness and dignity of every person.”
Dickman said he and Cliff Edwards are helping Catalyst develop a meditation space around the peace pole with support from the Phillips Family Foundation.
“The residents paint rocks while they’re here, so we’re going to place the rocks around the peace pole and hope to install a bench down the line so it can be a relaxing and uplifting place,” Dickman said.
Art gallery includes interactive ‘recovery tree’ painting
The event included free food, a dunk tank, face painting, community resources and an art gallery by Verna Horvath from Wooster.
She had a “recovery tree” in which event attendees could write an encouraging message on a paper leaf and add it to a collaborative art piece.
“I’ve noticed that recovery affects everyone differently,” Horvath said. “I appreciate everyone being vulnerable enough to contribute to the project. I think having so many different leaves and messages on here really helps people realize that they’re not alone.”
The Celebrate Recovery event brought New Beginnings alumni, Catalyst staff, court probation officers and the public together.
“It’s kind of like a reunion,” Surber said. “This is an opportunity to play games and catch up with people who you haven’t seen in a while.
“It means so much to celebrate this day with judges and probation officers who work closely with us to save lives. Having the support of the courts, our health department, and community partners is important for our consumers.”
Judge Phil Naumoff and Judge Brent Robinson from Richland County Common Pleas Court attended the event Wednesday.
Robinson said Catalyst Life Services is one of the court’s main providers of inpatient and recovery services in drug and re-entry court.
“We have other options to refer people to, but most of them are not as geared toward also treating mental health in addition to substance abuse,” he said.
“Those issues go hand in hand so often. I sentenced a woman recently who asked to go to New Beginnings because she said she’s been depressed and wanted those mental health services too.
“Recovery is one of the hardest things people ever have to do, and in the end, they have to do it themselves. We can give them the tools, but it’s up to clients to do the heavy lifting.”
Doug Newsome, owner and operator of 419 Rideshare and a New Beginnings alumnus, performed music at the event.
“I think it’s important to celebrate recovery because I celebrated every night — or thought I was celebrating — with drinking,” he said.
“I came here 10 years ago, turned my life around and I started the business to help people get treatment. We have five drivers now, drive people to recovery and home from bars.”
Newsome said playing music at each of Catalyst’s Celebrate Recovery events has given him the opportunity to share his story and background.
“It makes a difference learning from someone who’s been where you’ve been and not feeling pressured to make a plan then and there, just to be able to hang out and talk,” he said.
“My goal is showing people that you can come out of darkness and get some light from it. It’s never too late.”
Third Street, other organizations offer health resources
Richland Public Health, Community Action for Capable Youth, National Alliance on Mental Illness — Richland County and Third Street Family Health Services also set up booths at the Celebrate Recovery event with resources.
Third Street Family Health Services provided Narcan and literature on how to prevent Hepatitis C and other conditions.
Third Street CEO Peggy Anderson said the community health center wanted to remind people of the multiple organizations available to those who need help.
“You can’t take a full picture of our community without those touched by addiction in some way,” she said.
“People with addiction challenges often face barriers to care and we want to eliminate as many of those as we can. We’re proud to be in the fight with Catalyst.”
‘It only makes the community stronger’
Dan Lew, founder of DLX and the Gravity Ohio nonprofit, donated hundreds of cookies to the event.
“We’re all about supporting the community and different mental health and recovery services,” he said. “Whether its suicide prevention or addiction recovery, we need more awareness about how to help and prevent those issues.
“It only makes the community stronger in the long run to support those services and share what they’re doing.”
Event attendees also had opportunities to memorialize loved ones who have died from addiction and mental health struggles.
Kristin Allen of Heartland Design Concepts designed a memorial banner for Catalyst. She used to work in child welfare, so she said designing the banner reminded her of how she saw addiction affect different families.
“It’s something that’s very close to my heart and I know many colleagues who have been instrumental in celebrating sober living and giving people that hand up,” Allen said. “It’s a great thing to be part of celebrating progress and important resources like this.”
Darcy Reed, a medical assistant at Beyond Esthetics MedSpa in Ontario, expressed a similar sentiment.
“We donated a self-care basket to Celebrate Recovery with some skincare products and gift certificates to try some different services,” she said.
“Our owner is really passionate about helping out these good causes and giving people a chance to relax, feel good and take care of themselves.”
Supporters and donors to the event included O’Charley’s Restaurant — which donated dinner for the second year in a row, Domino’s, Thistle and Oak Tattoo Studio, Genoa Pharmacy, Swavory, Peggy Lewis/ Allure, Envious Ink, Salon Vivace, Beyond Esthetics, Appleseed Building Co., Doug Newsome/ 419 Rideshare, Jaclyn Hittesdorf/ Jackie’s Cheesecakes, Blackbird Bakery & Relax, It’s just Coffee, Fast Eddie’s Pizza, Gionino’s Pizzeria, the Infield, John Roby/ RFME Insurance, Lisa Rose/Salon Vivace, McDonald’s, Envy Salon, Peace Fellowship and the Phillips Family Foundation, Blessed & Anointed Barbershop, Apple Hill Orchard, Wayne’s Country Market, West Water Hauling, Heartland Design Concepts, Dan Lew/ DLX, Jones Chips and Richland County Common Pleas Court.