Source: The Daytona Beach News-Journal 09/29/2021
The 25-year-old musician was once an up-and-coming rapper, playing clubs in New York City and making a name for himself.
But when he took the stage on a Saturday afternoon at Veterans Park in Flagler Beach, it was the first time he performed in over a year. And the first time he’s ever performed sober.
Wirth, and his burgeoning music career, took a detour in 2020 that eventually landed him in Palm Coast.
“I started drinking too much,” he said. “And that became more important to me.”
It took a while for Wirth to come to that realization, but once he did, he sought help.
“There’s a huge stigma that comes with alcohol abuse,” he said. “I thought I had to be a 62-year-old living under a bridge.”
And it’s that stigma that brought Wirth and hundreds of others to Veterans Park on Sept. 18 for Flagler Open Arms Recovery Services’ inaugural National Recovery Month Festival.
The event was designed to build community awareness around substance abuse disorders, according to Pam Birtolo, executive director of Flagler OARS.
“Part of our goal is to bring recovery out of the shadows,” she said.
Birtolo, who is in recovery herself, said the stigma surrounding addiction and recovery prevents many people from seeking the help they need. But she’s seen a change over the years.
“The kids don’t have much of a problem bringing it out into the open, and the more we do that, the more people will recover.”
Around 35 exhibitors attended the event, each one providing a service for people suffering from addiction.
Birtolo said Flagler County offers a lot of services for people looking to stop using drugs or drinking alcohol, but the festival was an opportunity to put all of those services in one place.
This year’s National Recovery Month theme is “Recovery is for Everyone,” which serves Flagler OARS quite well.
“We honor and respect multiple pathways to recovery,” Birtolo said. “Some people follow total abstinence, some still drink, some are in Alcoholics Anonymous, some are in Narcotics Anonymous. We celebrate and honor all of that.”
The event kicked off at noon with a yoga class and continued through 8 p.m. with live music and stories of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.
Exhibitors included drug and rehabilitation centers; transitional and recovery housing; Focus on Flagler Youth; Flagler Cares; One Love Yoga; Care Connect; and more.
Kim Carney, Flagler OARS board president, said when the local recovery community heard about the festival, they worked hard to make it happen.
“These people want to be loved. They want to come out, they want to be part of a community,” she said. “Once they get the chance to connect, they are remarkable.”
Wirth, whose lyrics share his story of recovery, has no regrets about starting over in Palm Coast. He made the move in July 2020 after spending 30 days in rehab. He entered Palm Coast Transitions, a sober living house for people in recovery.
“I was only coming for two months, but I decided to stay,” he said. “I love it here.”
He credits the facility with getting him back on his feet and for introducing him to a strong support system of people in various stages of recovery.
“I had to learn how to redo everything sober,” he said.
He said he made strong connections with his housemates — a “brotherhood,” as he described it.
“I had a nice group of guys to do fun stuff with without having alcohol,” he said.
After six months in Palm Coast Transitions, Wirth got his own place. And his Realtor’s license.
“I’m so grateful to be an alcoholic,” he said. “Today I wouldn’t have what I have without it.”
Local drug overdoses and the availability of Narcan
Narcan also had a booth at the event and provided free doses of the overdose-reversal drug.
Carney said carrying Narcan should be as commonplace as learning CPR.
“I believe it should be in every house and carried by every person,” she said.
Carney said she has doses in her home, even though opioid addiction isn’t present.
“You just never know,” she said.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 70% of the nearly 71,000 drug overdose deaths in 2019 involved an opioid. Opioid drugs include prescription pain relievers such as OxyContin and Vicodin; heroin; and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid pain reliever.
Fentanyl is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Fentanyl is added to heroin to increase its potency, or to disguise the drug as highly potent heroin. This has posed a threat to drug users for years.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Between March and July, 148 people died from drug overdoses in Flagler and Volusia counties. That’s a 54% increase over the 96 drug overdose deaths during the same period in 2019, data from medical examiners’ offices shows.
Local health-care systems also have observed a sharp increase in non-fatal overdoses.
Nationwide, drug overdose deaths rose 30.9% in 2020, according to preliminary data compiled in August by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About Flagler OARS
Flagler Open Arms Recovery Services is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization devoted to removing the stigma of substance use disorder through education, advocacy and peer support services to individuals and families affected by addiction.
The local branch, one of 12 in the state, started in October 2019 with a grant from the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association. The all-volunteer organization was up and running in April 2020, just as the COVID pandemic was shutting everything down.
But instead of putting services on hold until the pandemic eased up, members went full speed ahead.
“We could have circled back (after COVID), but we had a lot of committed people,” Carney said.
So like most organizations, they began offering programs through Zoom, such as Lunch & Learns and educational pieces, Birtolo said.
Carney said the organization met its strategic plan goals this year and is working on next year’s goals.
For information on services, visit flagleroars.org.
