Seneca Health Services will celebrate and honor those affected by substance abuse disorder with an upcoming event.
Recovery Riches is scheduled for Saturday, Sept.11, at the Greenbrier Valley Medical Center. The event will feature games, speakers, a memorial walk, and a chance for the community to come together.
“We want to educate more people about substance abuse disorder,” explained peer recovery coach Amanda Eltzroth with Seneca Health Services. “We want to have people more supportive of people in recovery. You don’t have to be in recovery to come! That has nothing to do with it. Everybody can come!
The only requirement to enter is to bring a nonperishable food item that will go to a community resource in Rainelle.
“We’re going to have a memorial walk for the people we’ve lost,” Eltzroth said. “West Virginia Inflatables is bringing jump houses. We have a t-shirt booth coming. We’re asking people to bring nonperishable food items as a registration fee and we’re going to donate all that food to the new facility in Rainelle, God’s Way Home.”
The event will also feature speakers on many of the ways substance abuse disorder affects the lives of those with it and their friends and family.
“[They’ll have] information on education, stigma, overdoses, quick response teams,” Eltzroth explained. “There will be stories about how people changed their lives. I have a special person speaking about how they overdosed and Narcan saved their life. They’re clean today and helping people. … We’re going to have family members of people who have substance abuse disorder. We have someone who has lost a loved one — she’ll be telling her story. … We will have a speaker on trauma as well. I believe there’s a total of 21 speakers.”
Through the social activities and speakers, the event looks to bring the West Virginia recovery community closer together.
“Our goal is to have fun and mingle with each other,” Eltzroth said. “We are bringing resources together from across the state of West Virginia to mingle with each other. There are resources coming from Charleston, Beckley, Parkersburg, places like that. We come together and we get to know each other and learn about the facility or organization they represent. We can see what they have to offer and what they can help with. For example, I have clients that need to go to treatment and I have information about a treatment facility, and I know if they go to that facility what they can benefit from, I’m going to send them to that treatment facility.”
Recovery Riches flier |
Eltzroth noted her involvement with putting on the Recovery Riches event as a personal point of pride.
“It’s a pretty big event, I’m excited,” Eltzroth said. “When I got clean, back in 2016, I wanted to help people but I didn’t know how to help myself. I ended up relapsing again. One of the things I wanted to do was move back home and help change my community and raise as much awareness about recovery as possible. … I had a hard time in the beginning, but I finally remembered and asked for complete help because I didn’t know what to do in 2017. I got clean and I stayed clean.”
Now a peer recovery coach, Eltzroth is in a position to help, including by helping create the event.
“I left here in 2016 and there was nothing here except for a detox center. I think shortly after that they started doing more things, it’s grown a lot. It’s my hometown and I want to help people. A lot of my friends and family are dying and I’m tired of losing people. I know that I can’t save everyone, but I can try and I can’t do it alone. … We can stand together as Greenbrier County. If everybody was against me, I never would have made it. If I didn’t have people helping me and supporting me when I struggled, [I wouldn’t have made it].”
If any organizations would like to participate and set up a booth, please RSVP by Aug. 30. Contact aeltzroth@shsinc.org or call 304-497-0500 ext.136 to register.
“Seneca Health Services wants to invite you to an event on September 11, 2021,” reads the registration form. “September is National Recovery Month and the Peer Recovery Coaches wanted to put together an event where people could come together and raise awareness that Recovery is Possible. We are asking everyone to be there around 2 p.m. to set up and to get everything situated and registered. There will be a registration table for people to sign in and get their set up. The Registration Fee is a nonperishable food item (the food will be donated to a newly opened men’s facility in Rainelle, WV). Actual address to the event is 1320 Maplewood Avenue Ronceverte, WV 24931. Use the Emergency Room Entrance and park in the gravel parking lot.”
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