SILER CITY — Any report about last Friday’s Community Recovery Rally could include a listing of the many agencies who showed up to offer their services to those struggling with mental health and substance abuse disorders. It could also include mention of the games and the community aspect of the event.
But as Renita Foxx, director of Chatham County Court Programs and one of the event’s organizers, told the News + Record, the story needs to be more about the people who spoke about their own experiences.
So here it is.
The Community Recovery Rally, held at Bray Park in Siler City, marked the 30th anniversary of National Recovery Month, an annual celebration started by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. On that 30th anniversary, several speakers shared their stories of struggles and recovery, losses and wins.
Megan Perez started off.
“Recovery to me means regaining a sense of self and re-creating yourself from the wreckage caused by drugs and alcohol,” she said. “Recovery is discovering your identity without drugs and alcohol. It is the process of establishing or re-establishing moral values and principles. It is rebuilding family relationships that have been lost or destroyed. It is building healthy, meaningful bonds that are real. It is learning coping skills to live life on life’s terms without the use of drugs and alcohol.
“Recovery means finding gratitude, inner peace and serenity, self-respect, self-love, confidence and humility.”
Perez talked about how she had to give up her daughter for adoption because of her addictions, but now that she’s in recovery — and the next day was her two-year sobriety anniversary — she has a healthy relationship with both her daughter and the adoptive family.
“Not everything is unicorns and butterflies every day,” she said, “but life is so much better than I could have imagined it to be before I came to (recovery).”
Next, Northwood High School freshman Elijah Roebuck took the stage. After reading a poem by the 14th-century Iranian poet Rumi, he started to talk about what the community can do to help one another.
“We don’t all understand how the brain works, how emotions work, how they connect with one another,” Roebuck said. “We don’t all need to. What we need to be is pondering what we can say and do to help those impacted directly and indirectly.”
He added that his youth is not a reason for him to not take seriously what’s going on inside his head.
“Just because I’m 14 years of age doesn’t mean I can’t have ideas, concepts, feelings, emotions,” he said. “This is occasionally what I talk about with my therapist, the concept that it’s not bad to feel a certain way.”
This was the theme of the night. Inter-mingled with live music, a food truck and local agencies like El Futuro, Chatham Recovery, Cardinal Innovations and Daymark Recovery Services offering help to those interested, speakers from varying backgrounds shared their stories.
Pfuandre White talked about going to jail because of his addiction and the importance of family and support as part of “getting me away from the things that I was doing.”
“Your support helps you get back things you have lost,” he said.
Kevin Manzanrez, a junior at Jordan-Matthews High School, spoke about the stress and pressures that come to teenagers from school and life in general.
“How can we be a better person if we’re struggling to be a real person?” he asked.
The theme of the night — “Together We Are Stronger” — was utilized in opening remarks by both Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson and Siler City Police Chief Mike Wagner.
Roberson spoke about a cousin of his who’s “hooked on heroin” and how she needs support from her community.
“She doesn’t have a lot of support for her anymore, he said. “To be honest with you, she’s in a trainwreck, and she knows it. But she can’t just jump off the train, and she needs people to help her get off the train.”
Wagner, still fresh to the job, said it’s his goal for the SCPD “to be a partner in this fight” for recovery.
“Today, you will find law enforcement engaged in mental health and substance abuse issues like never before on the preventive end,” he said. “I believe that the law enforcement community is a key asset in a shared responsibility to all our members that are facing some type of life crisis.”
Roberson added, referring to the broader issue of addiction and mental health issues in Chatham, “What we’ve done so far is not enough. We’ve got to do more. Together, we really are stronger.”
Reporter Zachary Horner can be reached at zhorner@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @ZachHornerCNR.