In an attempt to raise awareness for and destigmatize substance abuse recovery, St. Luke’s Penn Foundation hosted over 200 people at the Recovery is for Everyone Walk on September 16.
The walk started at 741 North County Line Rd. in Souderton, with the Telford train station as the turn-around point.
The walk also crossed through both Montgomery and Bucks Counties.
This was the second year that the foundation organized the event, which takes place in September for National Recovery Month.
St. Luke’s Penn Foundation community outreach specialist Ryan Schweiger spearheaded the planning.
“The theme [for the walk] is recovery is for everyone; every person, every family, every community,” Schweiger said. “We need to continue to raise awareness and reduce stigma so that people feel more comfortable talking about it, and feel like there is hope.”
St. Luke’s Penn Foundation president Wayne Mugrauer also emphasized that the walk’s importance centered around the community being “willing to walk the journey of recovery” with those in need.
“This is an opportunity for our entire community to come out and celebrate the recovery and courageous work that our clients do,” Mugrauer said, “ [along with] what our staff does to ensure that people have full and wonderful lives.”
Schweiger and Mugrauer wanted to highlight that no one should feel alone in their journey and should feel comfortable reaching out for help.
“Help is there and recovery is possible. It’s never anything to feel ashamed about,” Mugrauer said.
Hatfield resident Margaret Keesler, Allentown resident Allen Beerhrle and Pennsburg resident Branden Schwager all attended the walk. Though it meant different things to all of them personally, they felt uplifted and encouraged by the walk.
Schwager, who has faced challenges with addiction and recovery, mentioned that the walk offers an opportunity to look for and help someone who is “ready to change their life and go on.” To him, coming together as a community makes everyone stronger.
“If you take one stick and you snap it, it snaps really easily,” Schwager said, “but if you stack one stick, two sticks, three sticks, four sticks, and try to break them, you can’t.”
The walk also aimed to educate and provide support for those who attended. Representatives from Bucks County Drug and Alcohol Commission were there giving out free preventative resources to anyone who wanted them. Schweiger said that this was a new addition to the event.
Senior administrative assistant to Bucks County Drug and Alcohol commision Bethany Pocceschi explained that the commission aims to “provide prevention services” and “promote safe medication service and storage.”
According to Pocceschi, they were handing out lock boxes to store medication and kits with informative cards, gloves, a mouth shield, prep pads and two doses of Narcan.
According to Schweiger, Narcan is a nasal spray that has the ability to immediately reverse an opioid overdose, but will not cause any harm if used in any other situation. “Overdose can be very accidental so it is important that anyone who might have their hands on any kind of opioid, has their hands on this life saving medication,” Schweiger said.
Schweiger hopes that the recovery walk will continue to “grow and make a splash” in the coming years.
More information about recovery can be found at St. Luke’s Penn Foundation’s website.
