Correspondent photo / Nancilynn Gatta
Lauren Thorp, associate director for the Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention, an offshoot of the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, enjoys herself in the pop-up foam party at the end of the ASAP Recovery Rally and Walk on Saturday at Eastwood Field in Niles.

“We host this event every year to show our community that recovery is possible and that there is a lot of great recovery happening right here in our area. Often, we only hear about negative things in the media. This is our chance to shine a light on the good things happening, build hope and let people struggling with drugs or alcohol know that they are not alone,” said Lauren Thorp, associate director of the Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention, an offshoot of the TCMHRB.

People living a sober lifestyle from alcohol and other drugs and their family and friends enjoyed games, a scavenger hunt, basket raffle and a free lunch with ice cream for dessert. Regeneration Church of Champion had paper and pen to leave a prayer request on their wall art piece.

There were 42 information booths for attendees to learn about programs and services that could help them continue on their positive recovery journey.

The Summit radio station, out of Akron, provided music throughout the event. The station hosts an on-air Rock and Recovery program that shows how music can aid recovery. Attendees also participated in a walk around Eastwood Field that ended in a foam party, which allowed those who took part in the walk to cool off from the unusually warm autumn day.

During the gathering inside the stadium prior to the walk, April Caraway, Executive Director of the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, read the names of people who lost their battle with addiction.

She said that every year the list gets longer as she read the names from 10 pages of 8×11 sheets of paper. Some of the sheets had names on both sides.

Then it was time to acknowledge and celebrate the recovery of those in attendance. Carol Henderson, board president of the TCMHRB, asked attendees to stand up as she counted down from 40 to 50 years of sobriety to 24 hours of staying clean.

After each group stood up, she would say, “Clap it up. You’re still here,” as the crowd acknowledged their success with claps and cheers.

Approximately 900 participants emptied the Eastwood Field stands to gather in the parking lot for the rally walk .The stroll around the outside of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers field was a symbolic action to display the success of the people in recovery and the support that they have from their family and friends and others in attendance.

A common sight throughout the venue and parking lot were hugs. These physical displays of affection were given to acknowledge the people who they had gone to treatment with and were happy to see doing so well back in their everyday lives. There were also encounters of thanks given to counselors for helping them with their sober lifestyle.

Thorp told the crowd, “It is not always easy to be in the community and show your face saying that you are in recovery. We know that our community has different feelings about that. By doing this today, you are bringing hope to others. Hopefully,when they see that you can do it, they will be willing to do it too. This is how we save lives.”