Packet Pick-up and Race Registration Days @ Luke's Locker!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 10AM TO 6PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 10AM TO 6PM
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HOUSTON’S OFFERING TO NATIONAL RECOVERY MONTH:
“RUN FOR RECOVERY & CITYWIDE SOBRIETY CELEBRATION”
In 1989, SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, under the federal Department of Health and Human Services, first designated the month of September as “National Addiction and Drug Abuse Recovery Month”. Communities were encouraged to plan and host Recovery Month events and activities and to help educate those individuals who still need to find and successfully complete addiction treatment services and join the ranks of those in long-term recovery from alcohol and drug addiction.
Scheduled for Sunday, September 12, 2010, and presented by Santa Maria Hostel, Inc., Extended Aftercare, Inc., and The Council on Alcohol and Drugs Houston, we plan to put Houston on the map for recovery celebration initiatives. Beginning at 7:30am at Sam Houston Park in Downtown Houston, there will be a 5K Run and a 5K Walk, following a course down Allen Parkway to Waugh Drive and back up Allen Parkway to the Park, covering 5 kilometers or 3.1 miles.
“I have always supported National Recovery Month and decided that Houston's recovery community should have the opportunity this year to be seen as an integral part of this community as a whole. I hope that this inaugural run will be an event that the City looks forward to each year to voice the value of recovery to each of us,” notes Kay Austin, CEO of Santa Maria Hostel, Inc. and Planning Committee Co-Chair.
Immediately following the race will be the Extended Aftercare After Race After Party, which will be an outdoor festival in Sam Houston Park beginning at 8:30am and featuring live music, an Awards Ceremony to include local, state and national dignitaries, a traditional Volleyball tournament, children's activities, and the Sizzlin’ South of the Border Cook-Off Competition.
Local 12-step groups, treatment centers, support agencies and individuals will prepare and serve a full south of the border fare and compete for top prizes, while attendees will enjoy taste testing their offerings for a nominal fee.
The special guest speaker of the event will be Matt Russell, former pastor of Mercy Street at Chapelwood United Methodist Church. Matt is returning to Texas to reconnect with his recovery friends and to share his message of hope and humility. Matt started Mercy Street in 1997 and currently lives in Lubbock with his family, while pursuing his PhD.
“As the fourth largest city in the United States, and one known as having one of the strongest recovery networks in the nation, it is only befitting that Houston would boast an event of this magnitude to celebrate sobriety, all the while raising awareness of the diseased of alcoholism and drug abuse,” states Planning Committee Co-Chair Keith Liles, CEO of Extended Aftercare, Inc.
This year’s national theme is “Join the Voices of Recovery: Now More Than Ever!” and it focuses on the critical need for education on all levels about the disease of addiction, and specifically how high levels of stress may contribute or exacerbate alcohol and/or drug use. With regard to the importance of Recovery Month, H. Wesley Clark, Director of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment said, “your participation will help to remove the barriers and negative attitudes for those who still need treatment as well as still help demonstrate that there are millions of Americans who are living healthy, happy lives and giving back to their communities in long term recovery."
Recovery Month is an annual observance that takes place during the month of September.
The Recovery Month observance highlights the societal benefits of substance abuse treatment, lauds the contributions of treatment providers and promotes the message that recovery from substance abuse in all its forms is possible. The observance also encourages citizens to take action to help expand and improve the availability of effective substance abuse treatment for those in need. Each year a new theme, or emphasis, is selected for the observance.
Recovery Month provides a platform to celebrate people in recovery and those who serve them. Each September, thousands of treatment programs around the country celebrate their successes and share them with their neighbors, friends, and colleagues in an effort to educate the public about treatment, how it works, for whom, and why. Substance abuse treatment providers have made significant accomplishments, having transformed the lives of untold thousands of Americans. These successes often go unnoticed by the broader population; therefore, Recovery Month provides a vehicle to celebrate these successes.
Recovery Month also serves to educate the public on substance abuse as a national health crisis, that addiction is a treatable disease, and that recovery is possible. Recovery Month highlights the benefits of treatment for not only the affected individual, but for their family, friends, workplace, and society as a whole. Educating the public reduces the stigma associated with addiction and treatment. Accurate knowledge of the disease helps people to understand the importance of supporting treatment programs, those who work within the treatment field, and those in need of treatment.