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Recovery in the News
FAVOR to have annual Recovery Walk in Florence
Traci Bridges
Pee Dee SCNow.com
September 8, 2009
FLORENCE — You might not realize it, but the faces of recovery are all around you.
They are your doctors, your lawyers, your teachers, your friends, your neighbors, and they need your support to flourish.
“As soon as you mention alcohol or drugs, the image people get is not a pretty one. It’s a very ugly one,” Lawrence P. Wiseburn of Faces and Voices of Recovery (FAVOR) Pee Dee said. “I think the general public knows what addiction looks like, but they don’t know what recovery looks like.”
Faces & Voices of Recovery is a national organization, committed to organizing and mobilizing the millions of Americans in long-term recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction, their families, friends, and allies to speak with one voice. The organization is dedicated to changing public perceptions of recovery, promoting effective public policy in Washington and in all 50 states, and demonstrating that recovery is working for millions of Americans.
On Saturday, FAVOR Pee Dee will hold its Fourth Annual Recovery Walk — Rally for Recovery in support and celebration of recovery at 10 a.m. on the Florence Rail Trail. The three-mile walk will begin behind Naturally Outdoors, located at 2519 W. Palmetto St. in Florence.
“Events like these put a face and voice on what recovery looks like, and that’s what FAVOR is all about,” said Wiseburn, who has been in recovery since July 2003. “We want to reduce the stigma and discrimination that so often comes with addiction. We’re not a treatment group like AA or NA. We’re advocates. There are many different roads to recovery, and all are cause for celebration.”
Saturday’s event will coincide with events going on across America in recognition of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. Last year, 40,000 people in 50 states participated in the celebration. Nearly 2,000 people in South Carolina participated in last year’s events in Florence, Greenville, Rock Hill, Columbia and Charleston.
This year, the Pee Dee chapter is expecting at least 200 people at the Florence event. In addition to the walk, there will be a chicken bog lunch, fellowship, live music from RLM and Day and Night Jazz, both of Bennettsville, prize drawings, guest speakers and other activities.
The event’s four lead community sponsors are St. John’s Parish, Circle Park Behavioral Health Services, McLeod Behavioral Health and HopeHealth of the Pee Dee.
A $10 registration fee includes participation in the walk, a T-shirt, lunch and entries in the many drawings. But those who’d prefer to just enjoy the live music and other activities are welcome too, Wiseburn said.
“The event is for those in recovery, their family, friends and allies,” he said. “We invite everyone to come out and celebrate.”
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