More than 100 take part in annual awareness event
Recovery works. Support systems, education and prayer can help.
That was Saturday morning's message during a drug awareness walk through downtown Butler.
About 125 people participated in The Walk of Hope, which started at Westminster Presbyterian Church at 10 a.m. and trekked up Main Street.
The walk, which is in its fifth year, was coordinated by the Mount Chestnut Presbyterian Church's Hope for Broken Hearts support group.
Organizer Charlene Eckert said she wants the event to bring attention to the drug problem and hope to both addicts and their families.
“It's important for people that are using drugs to go through recovery and get better,” she said, “but it's just as important for families that are hurting and need support, to know they have somewhere to go and talk confidentially and openly about what they are going through.
“Everyone's journey is different.”
Participants in the walk made their way in a light rainfall to the front of the Butler County Courthouse where a prayer was offered up to give strength to those battling addiction.
The walk continued onto the Butler County Prison on South Washington Street where Shawn May of Teen Challenge delivered a testimonial.
May spoke about his addiction to heroin that began with painkillers prescribed for a knee injury he suffered while in the U.S. Army.
But, he said, drugs weren't the root of his problem. He admitted he was dealing with other issues like depression, anger and lack of self worth.
He turned his life around by turning for spiritual help.
“God changed my heart,” May said. “He gave me desires that were there but I didn't know were there.”
One desire he said he found was the need to help addicts find recovery. He hoped his personal story would give hope to others.
“I'm going on four years clean,” May proclaimed.
Bill Bittner, president of Butler County Against Heroin, was another eager walker.
A unified community, including clergy, support groups, lawmakers and those in the judicial system, he said, is imperative to solving the drug scourge.
Help from average citizens, he added, is important, too.
“We need to bring awareness to the problem,” Bittner said, “and ask what we can do to help fight this problem.”
A number of participants in the event acknowledged they were encouraged by news of dramatically fewer drug-related fatalities in Butler County so far this year as compared to 2017.
Some health and law enforcement officials credit naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote also known as Narcan, for the decline in overdose deaths.
But the Rev. John Pistorius, pastor of St. John's Reformed Church in Chicora and president of the Petroleum Valley Ministerium, had a different take.
“It's not just attributed to Narcan,” he said, while attending the event. “There are people praying all over this county because we want to see lives changed. We want to see lives saved. We want to see people's lives put back together.
“Prayer, to us, is the answer that makes all of that happen. We support all of the other efforts in prayer.”
