Recovering addicts share message on beating addiction in walk across state

Every drug or alcohol addict has a rock bottom, says Sandi Kennec of Central City. And everyone's rock bottom is different.

Kennec's rock bottom came after her children were taken away from her.

She had lost her job, her children, everything.

"Here I was, working 11 to 7 in the Kwik Stop," Kennec said. "And I said, ’I can't do this anymore.'"

Now, after turning for help to a police officer who stopped at the Kwik Stop, she has been sober for a year, and she just got custody of her children back.

She was in Grand Island on Thursday as part of the Walk of Recovery, a weeklong walk from North Platte to Lincoln to celebrate the power of recovery from alcohol and drug addiction.

The walkers stopped at the local office of the state Department of Health and Human Services to chat and gather signatures for the fabric-covered wagon they were pulling.

Several employees gladly signed -- including the caseworker who had once taken Kennec's children away.

It was a poignant moment for Kennec, one that demonstrated exactly what the walk was about: letting addicts and those who love them know that hope does exist.

With signs proclaiming, "There Is a Solution" and "Love not meth," the group of six walked through Grand Island on Thursday, soliciting donations for the Siena/Francis House, a recovery program in Omaha.

It was part of a long week, with stops in Central City and Aurora remaining before the walk was expected to end on Monday at the State Capitol.

But if they could get a few passersby to understand the ravages of drugs and particularly methamphetamine, it would be worth it.

"It's getting people seeing -- looking at these people and saying, ’They're serious about meth,'" said one walker, Randy Carroll of Broken Bow.

All of the walkers were recovering from their own drug or alcohol addictions, except for one Lincoln woman who was walking for her daughter, a recovering drug addict.

And all of them, like Kennec, had experienced firsthand the destruction that drugs and alcohol bring, as well as the peace that comes through recovery.

"It brought out more anger and hate that replaced the love that I'd grown up with," said Jim Callaghan of North Platte, a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for 18 months.

The walk was the idea of Lori Ferguson of Central City, a recovering alcoholic and meth addict who has been sober for 10 years.

Ferguson said she thought of the walk after getting angry reading the newspaper while living in North Platte. Readers would write in referring to addicts as losers, tweakers, meth heads.

Ferguson wanted to help people see that those addicted to alcohol and drugs are humans, too -- sons, daughters, parents, friends, co-workers.

"There's not too many people that aren't affected in some area," she said.

Connie Holmes, executive director of the Central Nebraska Council on Alcoholism and Addictions, which hosted the group for lunch, said she was delighted to see them walking.

"Events like this help people understand that recovery is possible and something to be proud of -- something to celebrate, because it gives people their life back," Holmes said.