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A
WALK IN THE SUNSHINE! Recovery
Walks! 2000
Every
year CCAR hosts a Recovery Walks! event in Bushnell Park, in downtown
Hartford. From 700 our first year, to almost 4000 last year (2004),
people are taking notice! The message that "Recovery is possible"
is gaining momentum in Connecticut and influencing citizens, legislators,
and most importantly, those with additions.
Recovery
Walks! 2000
(see morephotos)
The
day was beautiful — a sunny, breezy autumn New England
Sunday.  The walkers began
to gather in Bushnell Park, below the golden dome of the State
Capitol, around noon. CCAR members had been there since 6 in
the morning, setting up the tents, the port-a-johns, making
things ready. They had dealt with the fire marshals, welcomed
two policemen, several park workers, and an emergency medical
team. The Hartford City Council had voted to waive fees for
these city workers because of the community importance of the
event.
As noon approached,
recovery walkers began to pour in. Six or seven hundred of
them, give or take. White, brown, black. Tall and short, thin
and stout. Old and young — lots of children and babies
with their mothers and fathers. An amputee in a wheel chair.
A blind man with his guide dog.
It was sunny, and
everyone was smiling. There was lots of hugging going on. An
extraordinary thing during the whole day was that whenever
you made eye contact with anyone, the response was always a
smile, and sometimes a hug, even when you didn’t know
who anybody was and they didn’t know you. There was a
sense of community, a community that transcended the usual
markers of race and class.
There was a Latino
recovery band, doing salsa — the first of four recovery
musical groups that played during the afternoon. The music
was outstanding. Younger people were up front, near the band,
dancing.
There was even — I
kid you not — a one-legged recovering tap dancer! He wore
green pants, a red shirt, a lavender jacket and a black top
hat. He told the crowd why he had come, all the way from New
Haven. "I heard this walk is about putting a face on recovery," he
said. "I lost my left leg to my addiction. It’s the
least I can do to show my face for the recovery that saved
the rest of me."
CCAR had a registration
table set up, and people were signing in and turning over the
money that had been pledged for their walk. They were picking
up T-Shirts, and hats. Various treatment programs from all
over the state showed up with staff and clients carrying banners.
CCAR members and volunteers were doing everything — greeting
the community, taking the pledges, distributing water and fruit,
handing out CCAR information and Recovery Walks! T-Shirts and
hats. Some ex-gang members were responsible for safeguarding
the money. The CCAR members wore special bright yellow T-Shirts
to identify them to anyone who needed help — they were
extraordinarily well organized.
Before the walk started
there was a short program highlighted by speeches, short and
moving. Two highlights:
Joey Petrello,
CCAR Member
"I remember shooting up on these benches in Bushnell Park, after I’d
copped — trying to catch enough light from the streetlights to do what I
thought I had to do to get what I thought I needed. And here I am, with all of
you, getting ready to walk in the sunshine in the very same park, for a cause
we truly believe in. Recovery truly is a miracle."
Tom Kirk, CT Department
of Mental Health and Addiction Services Commissioner:
"We’re all here about recovery, but you’re the ones who have to
put a face on it, and give it a voice! Put your arms in the air and shout it
out! Who here is in recovery?"
"We are!"
"Who here has a job?"
"We do!"
"Who here paid taxes last year?"
"We did!"
"Who here is registered to vote?"
"We are!"
"Who here has a spouse, a child, a grandchild, a parent?"
"We do!"
"And what happened to our families when we got better?"
"They got better!"
"And so did our communities get better. So let’s be proud, let’s
put some zip in our step, hold our heads high, and let’s Walk for Recovery!"
The walkers had pledged
to walk five kilometers, around Bushnell Park three times.
There was a ribbon cutting — Tom Kirk officiating, and
three children of a person in recovery cutting the ribbon ("that’s
good," someone next to me said, "they’re our
future") — and then the walkers took off. They had
to walk on the sidewalk, so what was a bunched up crowd around
the bandstand turned into a stream of people that seemed to
go on forever. You could see the stream up ahead of you, crossing
the Capitol grounds with the golden dome gleaming overhead.
You could look back, and see a stream behind you. People walked
smartly, with their heads up. Cars slowed down and drivers
called out to ask what this was about. People called out "we’re
walking to celebrate recovery from addiction!" and drivers
gave them thumbs up. One couple even parked their car and joined
the walk.
Some more snapshots:
The choir. CCAR
members had at first thought that somewhere in the celebration
they would make room for the serenity prayer and for singing "Amazing
Grace". Then, someone suggested that this might make people
who don’t relate to 12-Step programs, or to religious
expression, feel excluded. After much discussion, they decided
not to program the event for this, but leave it to the occasion
to see what would develop.
As the group streamed
through Bushnell Park, out of nowhere, it seemed, they happened
upon a choir that was practicing in the park. The choir was
singing "Amazing Grace." Walkers joined in as they
passed by. There were tears on many faces.
The homeless man.
A homeless man, with an unkempt scraggly beard, a cane and
all
his belongings stuffed into a backpack, got caught up in this
event. At first he just hung around the outskirts, looking
on, but he kept edging further in. Somehow or another, he got
into first one conversation, then another. Then he went to
the T-Shirt booth. "I’m lame, and I can’t walk
five miles," he said, "but if you’ll give me
a free T-Shirt, I’ll cheer you on." So, they gave
him a T-Shirt, and he put down his backpack and put on the
T-Shirt. And he stood by the starting ribbon, shook his cane
and cheered, and as the walkers returned, he was standing by
the reentry point, still shaking his cane and cheering.
The policemen. Two
policemen watched with a great deal of interest. When the marchers
were off on their rounds, they sidled up to the T-Shirt booth. "We
both were in [a local treatment program] ten years ago," one
of them said. "Do you think we could get a T-Shirt too?" They
each went home with a Recovery Walks T-Shirt.
The hug. One
CCAR member, Mickey, stood at the top of a hill and gave anyone
willing a hug. It turns out that one man who got hugged remembered
Mickey. Back in the days of his addiction, he had been in Hartford
looking to score in a seedier side of town when he was assaulted.
Bleeding and laying in the gutter, Mickey (also still actively
using at the time) and a black man had helped this white man
get the help he needed. The white man hadn’t seen Mickey
since, until he hugged him at the walk. It was a tearful reunion.
The counselor. One
woman, a treatment counselor, said she was going to do the
walk if it killed her, and she thought it might, because she
was generously proportioned and "a tad out of shape." She
started out gamely enough, but then came a hill, and she began
to flag. Two men saw her begin to struggle and came up to lend
moral support and urge her to hang in there. "These are
old clients of mine," she said. "I never knew how
things worked out for them, but look at this! Once I helped
them, and here they show up, helping me!" She finished
the walk.
A proud little
girl. The walkers were coming down the home stretch,
some looking a bit bushed, and the line a bit straggly. Along
came a young woman, still walking strong and looking like
an African queen. Beside her was walking her two year old
daughter, her hair done up in plaits, trying to match her
mother’s stride, pumping her little arms for all she
was worth. The two of them were a picture of pride.
The whole day was
a picture of pride. Not the kind of pride that undermines the
humility that for many is the spiritual foundation of their
recovery. It was the kind of pride that makes you happy, makes
you grateful, and keeps you humble.
We asked a lot of
people why they came, and what they had gotten out of the walk.
Here are some of the answers:
"I’m not
afraid to put a face on recovery. Maybe, a while back, it would
have worried me some, but now I want people to know we exist.
I want people to know we matter. I want people to know we survived."
"Being in recovery
puts me in debt, and tells me I have to pay my debt. Its just
like a mortgage. If you want to keep the house, you’ve
got to pay the mortgage. Walking for recovery is part of paying
the mortgage."
"Look at all
the babies and children here. They keep shutting down treatment
centers, building more jails, locking more sick people up.
What’s going to happen to these babies and children?"
"I got my 14 year chip last month, but I still carry the suffering addict
in my heart. That’s why I’m here."
"I didn’t
know what to expect when I came here. I’m new to recovery,
I have 30 days. All these people here, its like they’re
shining."
"All my life
I’ve been part of the problem. My pride was eaten up.
I feel like now I’m part of the solution, that I get to
sit on the side of table where the people work on letting in
the light, not just trying to wriggle this way or that, trying
to get out from under one little piece of the problem, just
to find themselves knee deep in another part. It feels so good
to be on this side of the table, it makes me so proud."
"Being a member
of CCAR is like being in the company of unsung heroes. It makes
you see that you can do something positive, be a good role
model, be a good citizen. I want to give back to the young
ones coming up behind me. "
"I work in a
treatment center. Recovery is the pay-off for treatment, but
in a treatment center you see more of the disease, less of
the recovery. Coming here will keep me going another five years."
"All those years,
chasing that high. And here it is, in Bushnell Park. This is
the ultimate high. I can’t quite believe it, but it’s
as if this is what I was always looking for."
"The devil is
mad. He’s losing a battle today."
One response from after the walk:
"When I was first asked to send out a message about Recovery Walks! to the
employees who work at my company, I thought of it in terms of time. "OK",
I said, knowing it would take me about 10 minutes of my time in this electronic
age to have a message delivered to over 10,000 employees.
When I was asked to
walk and obtain pledges from friends and family, I thought
in terms of time. "OK", I said, knowing it would
take me about 2 hours to collect pledges and 2 hours at the
walk to show that I supported CCAR (and my husband’s work
and passion).
When I was asked to
take pictures on the morning of the walk, I thought in terms
of time.
"OK’, I said, what was a couple more hours on a gorgeous fall day.
When I arrived at
Bushnell Park on Sunday, September 17th, and saw not only the
sun shining from the sky above, the sun colored shirts on the
backs of many volunteers, and most importantly the sun shining
in the smiles of everyone who was there from and for CCAR,
I thought in terms of time. No longer my time, but the relatively
short time that CCAR has been around. The example they set
for those still struggling in the throes of addiction was powerful.
Not so much that they were public about their recovery, but
that they were happy, joyous and free.
For many of my family
members and friends, I have prayed for what seems like a lifetime
that they experience the beauty and blessings of recovery.
And I am grateful to know that as CCAR continues to grow and
spread their message in our local and global communities, some
day my prayers will be answered - in God's time, not mine."
Notes: The
Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services
provided 20 of the 95 volunteers who showed up at 9:00AM to
assist with the walk. One of the staff members designed a special
pin for DMHAS employees to wear.
About 700 people participated with most of them walking.
At least 1500 people were directly involved across Connecticut.
The CCAR mailing list grew by 127 names.
Over $16,000 was raised to support recovery advocacy.
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Recovery
Walks! 2000
Bushnell Park
Hartford, Connecticut
Recovery
Walks! 2001
Bushnell Park
Hartford, Connecticut
Recovery
Walks! 2002
Bushnell Park
Hartford, Connecticut
Recovery
Walks! 2003
Bushnell Park
Hartford, Connecticut
Recovery
Walks! 2004
Bushnell Park
Hartford, Connecticut
Recovery
Walks! 2005
Bushnell Park
Hartford, Connecticut
Recovery
Walks! 2006
Bushnell Park
Hartford, Connecticut
Recovery
Walks! 2007
Bushnell Park
Hartford, Connecticut
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