Members of the Huntington community joined together for the Walk for Recovery event Tuesday at the Marshall University Student Fountain. Healthy Connections sponsored the family-friendly event, which was free in an effort to raise awareness and support about the organization and recovery resources available. Non-profit organizations such as Quality Insights, Harmony House, Lily’s Place and Project Hope were also present. The Walk for Recovery event featured a vigil to honor loved ones affected by substance use disorder.

“It’s not just one entity,” Crystal Welch, a registered nurse and member of Quality Insights, said about the group effort to help those in need. “Our goal is to provide services especially for women and mothers who are in recovery.”

The types of services include job training, earning a GED, childcare and connecting those in need to other non-profits that can offer help.

“It’s basically a repository of services that we can help augment and support other entities in the area trying to do the same thing,” Welch said.

The Walk for Recovery event was originally conceived by a mother in recovery who works behind the scenes helping other moms in recovery and believed something needed to take place to increase awareness. Originally intended for mothers and women, it was changed to include people from all walks of recovery.

People who are recovering from substance use disorder were given a platform to talk about their experiences and the help they received in taking steps toward recovery.

Debbie Ellis, a mother whose daughter is in recovery, was present to see her daughter speak out on her own experience.

“It makes me feel proud that she works so hard,” Ellis said. “I like the awareness and support because 2 years ago when my daughter needed that, there was nothing available in Huntington but criticism. Now, there’s more help, there’s more treatment, there’s more everything.”

Olayinka Bamiro can be reached at [email protected].