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Recovery in the News
Festival to celebrate recovery from substance abuse
Brooke Brown
Deseret News
September 17, 2009
The skies were dreary with a gray morning drizzle. Mary Jo McMillen was slightly damp but proudly wearing a baggy T-shirt that read "Utah."
She stood to be filmed and photographed before a crowd of thousands and felt humbled for the moment in which she took part.
McMillen, wife for 18 years, soccer mom of girls ages 13 and 15, owner of two dogs and dedicated Ute fan, appears to be a typical Utah resident.
But last Saturday, she was recognized for one thing that sets her apart in the local community, when she and 50 other representatives from each state and the District of Columbia stood before the nation as former drug and alcohol abusers who have been in recovery for at least 10 years.
A&E's Recovery Rally in New York City welcomed more than 10,000 recovered substance abusers and their supporters as they walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and formed a human bridge symbolizing the road to recovery from substance abuse.
McMillen took part in the national event after being nominated by a committee of recovery advocate foundations in Utah that appreciated the values and influence she has had through her journey from substance abuse to recovery, which entailed abusing drugs and alcohol at 15, recognizing her sickness at 24, working to help others recover at 26, and celebrating her 24th anniversary of continuous recovery on Wednesday, at age 48.
"This has basically become my life's work," McMillen said.
Both she and her husband, Shawn McMillen, a long-term recoverer of 29 years whom she met working in the substance abuse treatment field, devote their lives to raising awareness and support for others in long-term recovery.
McMillen, who now supplements her life with yoga classes and Buddhist meditation and prayer, said she knew she wanted to share her experience with others to help them in their path to recovery from addiction after her first job in substance abuse treatment at the University of Utah's Neuropsychiatric Institute in Salt Lake City.
But McMillen said she never dwells on her "qualifying story" — the years leading up to recovery — because the process is about focusing on the lifestyle change that comes with recovery, and using those changes to help others make a permanent transformation.
"Recovering people contribute a great deal to their community," McMillen said.
Yet service is not always the first quality people associate with recovering people with addiction, which is something McMillen said she hopes to change.
As an outpatient clinical coordinator at First Step House substance treatment center in Salt Lake City, McMillen's mission is to celebrate recovery, advocate policy-making to support treatment facilities, provide support for recovery peers and families, and educate people about recovery in general.
In conjunction with that mission, her treatment center and Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness are celebrating Recovery Day with a free festival in Salt Lake on Saturday.
The event goes along with National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, which has been annually recognized in September for the past 20 years, though the general public probably has heard little about it, McMillen said.
U-SARA executive director Casey Hill said this is because though there are about 100,000 people in Utah who have some sort of addiction-related problem, awareness and funding for the issue is lacking.
So, Hill and McMillen aim for Recovery Day to serve as a way to bring attention to substance treatment recovery, and help people recovering from addiction see that they are not alone.
"Recovery is happening — but it could be happening at a much greater rate if we get the entire community around it," Hill said.
He said he sees the day as a chance for the public to recognize that people in recovery are not just "the guys laying under a tree in Pioneer Park," but also upstanding, contributing members of the community
As an outpatient clinical coordinator at First Step House substance treatment center in Salt Lake City, McMillen's mission is to celebrate recovery, advocate policy-making to support treatment facilities, provide support for recovery peers and families, and educate people about recovery in general.
In conjunction with that mission, her treatment center and Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness are celebrating Recovery Day with a free festival in Salt Lake on Saturday.
The event goes along with National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, which has been annually recognized in September for the past 20 years, though the general public probably has heard little about it, McMillen said.
U-SARA executive director Casey Hill said this is because though there are about 100,000 people in Utah who have some sort of addiction-related problem, awareness and funding for the issue is lacking.
So, Hill and McMillen aim for Recovery Day to serve as a way to bring attention to substance treatment recovery, and help people recovering from addiction see that they are not alone.
"Recovery is happening — but it could be happening at a much greater rate if we get the entire community around it," Hill said.
He said he sees the day as a chance for the public to recognize that people in recovery are not just "the guys laying under a tree in Pioneer Park," but also upstanding, contributing members of the community.
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"There are thousands of people every year who get better and become productive," Hill said.
Recovery Day will include a 5K run, free hot dogs, snow cones and cotton candy, live music, children's games, arts and crafts, and information booths.
The family-oriented, celebratory atmosphere is being created to show that everyone can benefit from the gifts of recovery, McMillen said.
A fun-loving mood at both Salt Lake's Recovery Day and the recent Recovery Project in New York City can be attributed to the changing perceptions of recovery — an issue that many people have previously regarded with a sense of shame.
"When celebrating recovery, people are saying, 'We beat this, and we're beating this every day, and we're excited to say it,'" McMillen said.
Perhaps those sentiments explain why McMillen found the crowd at the A&E Recovery Project to be the most energized she had ever seen — because these people are learning to view their recovery as a triumphant facet of life that can be learned from, for good.
Recovery Day will be Saturday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main. Registration for the 5K run begins at 7 a.m. For more information and run registration, visit www.U-SARA.org.
Recovery Day
When: 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main
More information: www.U-SARA.org
e-mail: bbrown@desnews.com