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Home > Celebrate > Rally for Recovery 2006 > About The Walk
NEW
JERSEY HAS BANNER DAY - NATIONWIDE RECOVERY RALLY
Over the past five years, New
Jersey’s addiction Recovery Walk has matured into
an annual event many of the state’s recovering residents
greet expectantly. Still, as eager as the 2,000-plus attendees
at this year’s renewal may have been, they could
not have known how fully the day would embrace them: an
afternoon when speeches, tinged with tears or lightened
with humor, ultimately celebrated the many redeemed lives
present, when music moved the entire crowd to sway or sing,
when an assembly of people too often left on the outside
had a clear sense of belonging.
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One of the winning banners
from Saint Michaels Medical Center.
Photo by Dan Meara |
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Watch
the video to see what took place on this celebratory
day.
cable|dsl
dial-up
(windows media player needed)
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A
feeling of community was apparent throughout the
day, beginning with the theme the Center for Substance
Abuse treatment chose for this year’s Recovery
Month: Build a Stronger, Healthier Community.
Each town in the state was invited by Friends of
Addiction Recovery-New Jersey to send a recovery
delegate to the Walk to represent “the fact
and the hope of recovery from addiction.” These
individuals led delegations from their towns and,
as part of the Walk program, came forward as their
names were read to form a circle in front of the
stage, yet another reflection of the thread of unity
that ran through the event. |
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Keynote, Paul Williams, and Raquel Mazon Jeffers,
Acting Director, New Jersey Department of Human Services,
Division of Addiction Services. Photo of Paul Williams
by Wayne Wirta, Raquel Mazon Jeffers by Beverly Keating-Monsen. |
In
his keynote, Paul Williams, an award-winning song
writer, referred to community in describing both
the 2,000 at the Walk and the people the world over
joined by the experience of addiction and recovery
from it. The recovering community, Williams said, “is
the largest family I’ve been a member of.” |
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(Above) During the day’s
program, recovery delegates’ names were read
and they came forward to be recognized and form a circle
in front of the stage, another reflection of the day’s
theme of unity. Photo by Ann Marie Flores. Right: Winners
of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey's Shout
Down Drugs Contest, Darius Jackson and Gabriel Terrell,
photo by Wayne Wirta. |
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Left, Gary Stromberg with
his book, The Harder They Fall:
Celebrities Tell Their Real-Life Stories of Addiction
and Recovery and right, the moms of Parent
to Parent. Photos by Ann Marie Flores |
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Beverly Keating
Monsen, left and Patricia Dennis lead the Candle
of Hope Ceremony |
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To further the image of belonging,
Williams urged the crowd to “pass on”
the message of their recovery. He said
that he certainly honored the 11th tradition
of 12-step programs, namely keeping
anonymous with respect to the program.
Nonetheless, he said that there was a time
and place to step forward and be open, to
contribute one’s story to “the river of hope”
that flows from people who offer themselves
as examples of recovery.
Photo by Beverly Keating-Monsen |
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Photo by Ann Marie Flores |
So
many families have dealt with addiction that Division of
Addiction Services Acting Director Raquel Mazon Jeffers
said
she knew of none that had been excluded.
Addiction’s sweep had not bypassed
Jeffer’s own family, as she recounted
growing up “in the shadow” of her father’s
alcoholism. Of her father, Jeffers said, “I
wish he could be here with us,” but said
he had not found his way into recovery.
She added that it takes courage to enter
recovery, a message heard more than
once during the day. |
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Paul Williams, center, with
James Wallace (left) Master of Ceremony, Monmouth County
Alliance Coordinator, and Barry Johnson (right) Monmouth
County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Director.
Photo by: Beverly Keating-Monsen |
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The recovery
delegates embodied
the courage Jeffers spoke of. During the
Walk’s program, the delegates’ names
were announced and they came forward
to be recognized. |
One
of them, Kevin Bullock
from Montclair, demonstrated a strong
grasp of the advocacy that is needed from
the recovery community on issues such as
expanding treatment capacity. He noted
that the state had Recovery Support Organizations
in seven counties, a good start to
placing them in all 21 New Jersey counties.
“I’m excited about where we’re going,”
Bullock said.
Another delegate, Mark Lewis, from
Counseling and Referral Services of
Ocean County in Brick Township, said he
was honored to have been chosen. He
then illustrated why he was chosen as a
delegate. He said he had urged seven
teenagers being treated at the outpatient
program where he worked as a counselor
to create the banner to be the program’s
entry in the Battle of the Banners that took
place at the Walk. |
Photos by: Beverly Keating-Monsen
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(Left to
right) Noah Hulick particpating in drumming circle and
Recovery Delegate Joni Whelan of SODAT gets ready for the festivities. |
Mark
Gillespie of the South Monmouth
Community Alliance enlisted students
from Manasquan High School to create
a banner to compete in the Battle of the
Banners. The banner, which read “Recovery
is Discovery at the Jersey Shore,”
won in the Municipality category. Gillespie
said the Recovery Walk gave his students
a glimpse of something they don’t usually
see – that it demonstrated “there is
hope, there is help; we’re a community for
recovery."
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Winning banner in the Municipal Alliance category.
Photo by Ann Marie Flores |
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