5,000 MARCH ACROSS BROOKLYN BRIDGE TO DEMONSTRATE UNITY
This year’s Rally was extraordinary in a number of ways. Most obvious was the human bridge of recovery that spanned the Brooklyn Bridge and led into Manhattan. New Jersey’s participants began the day with a ferry ride to the base of the bridge in Brooklyn. From there they walked to Cadman Park, where fellow recovery celebrants from New York and Connecticut were assembled. The annual Rally for Recovery always walks a fine line between celebration and lament. There is rejoicing in the many who have emerged from addiction who have been returned to their families and communities. But the celebrating is tempered with an awareness that, in many cases because of limited treatment availability, thousands are missing, having never found their way into recovery. See the 2008 Rally Highlights
Recovery Rally and Cruise, Saturday, September 27
From Liberty State Park to the Brooklyn Bridge and Back - 7th Annual Rally for Recovery
Don’t Miss the Boat for a greatly expanded Friends’ Rally for Recovery 2008 in partnership with A&E Network! This year’s all-day free event will have morning activities including a chartered cruise from Liberty State Park to NYC where we will join thousands of recovery supporters from the tri-state area to form a human bridge - a living symbol of recovery - right on the historic Brooklyn Bridge!
After the return Cruise to Liberty State Park, a full afternoon of events will continue the celebration of recovery. There will be a speakers program featuring the keynote by author David Carr (see below) and including remarks by other dignitaries, as well as several individuals describing their recovery. There will also be musical entertainment and the Third Annual Battle of the Banners Contest, which this year is themed Join the Voices for Recovery: Real People, Real Recovery. Find out more
Recovery Voices Count Campaign
NCADD-NJ is among 10 organizations from across the country invited to participate in an addiction recovery advocacy effort known as Recovery Voices Count. The project, which was developed and is being supported by Faces and Voices of Recovery, will build an addictions recovery constituency in each of the participating states through voter registration and education and a get out the vote effort. NCADD-NJ and the grassroots organization under its auspices, Friends of Addiction Recovery-New Jersey (Friends), will receive a $2,000 mini-grant as seed funding for the project. The impetus for Recovery Voices Count is the unprecedented political interest stirred by the presidential primaries. NCADD-NJ and FOAR-NJ were selected because they have already developed issues education and advocacy components.
30,000 CELEBRATE RECOVERY NATIONWIDE
Liberty State Park hosted New Jersey’s sixth Addiction Recovery event but it provided many firsts that made it, in keeping with the tone of the day, not a rehashing but a true renewal.
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence - New Jersey
