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2025 ROSC Walk 4 Recovery held at
Scully Park
[September 29, 2025]
On Saturday, September 27th,
the Logan and Mason Recovery Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC) group
held their annual “Walk 4 Recovery” at Scully Park in Lincoln. This
walk marked the fourth recovery walk that has been hosted by ROSC.
The weather was beautiful, with the temperature at 83 degrees
Fahrenheit at the event’s start time of noon. The day was sunny and
there was not a cloud in the sky.
The “Walk 4 Recovery" has been
hosted every year with the goal of bringing attention to drug
addiction recovery. It is a walk that has been used to help spread
the message of addiction being a disease, to help end the stigma of
drug addiction, and to help people in the community know what
resources are available to them and their loved ones in their fight
with addiction.
There were several stands and tents
that were set up at the park, many who provided addiction recovery
services of some kind. The companies and groups present included
Memorial Health, SIU Medicine, Lincoln/Logan Crime Stoppers, Open
Arms, The Salvation Army, Trillium Place, Hope on 5th, Chestnut
Health Systems, and Back Road Bully Creations LLC.
While stands were getting set up
and people were arriving, there were several banners that people
were encouraged to sign. The first was a white banner with the words
“recover out loud” on it. The other banner was a banner for the
names of people who lost their battle with drug addiction.
Event organizers Jeanette Davis and
Samantha Martinie got the event started once everyone had arrived.
They spoke to the crowd of people, informing them how the day was
going to go. They had three people who were going to get up and
speak about their addiction and share their stories of recovery.
Afterward, they would walk around the Logan County Courthouse and
around the community.
The first speaker was Amanda Meyer.
Meyer shared that her sobriety day is January 10th of 2019. There
were a lot of events in her life that led to that day, however.
Meyer was raised in foster care after she was taken from her
parents. She had her first cigarette at a very early age and tried
marijuana for the first time at ten years old. As she grew older,
bullying pushed her toward alcoholism. After becoming an adult, she
lost her boyfriend to suicide, which pushed her to even stronger
drugs.
Today, though, Meyer’s life has
turned around. She has a husband who she says builds her up and
friends who care about her. She then read a Bible passage that spoke
to her on her journey through recovery. She ended by telling
everyone in the audience “you are loved, you are strong, you are
beautiful.”
The next speaker was Leo Jones.
Jones shared that he was raised in a Catholic school and learned
from an early age that he could do whatever he wanted. This resulted
in him falling in with the wrong crowd and turning to substances
like drugs. Jones was in and out of prison many times in his fifty
years of addiction.
Eventually, like Meyer, Jones was able to leave these substances and
lifestyle behind. Today, Jones shared, he is no longer afraid to
live his life. He looks forward to each day and finds that having
people in his life cheering him on makes each day of sobriety
easier. Jones credited much of the success in his life to God,
saying “thank God I was brought this way.”
After Jones finished sharing his
story, Davis and Martinie organized everyone for their walk. The
group walked down Kickapoo Street from Scully Park toward the
courthouse. They then turned right on Broadway Street, walking down
past the Logan County Safety Complex and turning right onto Sherman
Street. The group then turned right onto Pulaski Street and walked
past IGA, turning left on McLean Street and walking back to Scully
Park.
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Once everyone was back at the
park, the food was served. This year, the food was made by The
Buttery and was donated by both The Buttery and Lincoln Memorial
Hospital. It included a turkey and cheese sandwich, chips, a
cookie, and a bottle of water.
After the food was served, the
final speaker got up to talk about their story. The final speaker
was Jeff McFadden, someone who works with ROSC today. McFadden
shared his story, stating that he and his wife both struggled with
addiction. Their recovery date was May 4th, 2019, the same day their
daughter was born. McFadden was arrested on a warrant on the same
day, and their daughter was taken into DCFS custody. Once McFadden
was released, he and his wife were only allowed to see their
daughter six hours a week.
During this time, McFadden and his
wife got involved in recovery programs, trying to get and stay clean
for their daughter. When COVID hit, however, all of this stopped.
With no support system, the pair realized that they could go back to
using again. This thought did not last long, McFadden shared, as
they did not want to throw away the months of progress they had
made.
When McFadden’s daughter was fifteen months old, she was returned to
he and his wife’s custody permanently. McFadden shared that they did
not realize this was going to happen on that day, as they were
simply called into the DCFS office. Driving home with his daughter
in the back seat was a feeling unlike anything McFadden had felt
before. He shared this was the best feeling he had felt in his life.
This flipped a switch for him, focusing his addiction on good things
rather than substances. McFadden shared that he is still addicted to
more today, but that more is things like family time and speaking to
others about recovery.
He shared that things have only
gotten better for him the longer he has been on his road of
recovery. He and his wife had a third child, and unlike their first
two, DCFS did not take them into custody when they were born.
Rather, they were able to take their daughter home with them.
McFadden shared that he cannot believe this is his life, calling it
a fairytale. McFadden ended by saying “everyone counts… recovery is
not only possible, it’s probable.”
Once the event was over, Davis, who is the Community Health
Specialist with ROSC, shared her thoughts on recovery and its
importance in the community. “I live my life in recovery,” Davis
said, saying that she has not figured out how to live her life
without the support system she has. She also stated that she loves
getting to serve her community. “I find it a privilege to be able to
serve my community in the capacity in which I get to… I get to do
this,” Davis said.
She continued, saying that there are a lot of people in the
community who are suffering from addiction. ROSC wants to “create
safe spaces for people to be able to share, be courageous, and tell
their truth without being belittled or looked down on.” They want to
create an inclusive environment for people who are struggling.
“Together we persevere,” Davis said.
There are many ways in which you or your loved ones can get involved
in recovery. Davis shared that she can be reached directly at
jedavis@chestnut.org. Davis also shared that there are Recovery in
Action meetings that are held once a month. These meetings take
place at Hope on 5th on the second Tuesday of each month from
4:30-6:00 p.m. In addition to these resources, Trillium Place is an
outpatient treatment center in Lincoln, and Start Program is a
medical assisted recovery program that operates out of the Logan
County Health Department. Davis also directed people to their
Facebook page
Logan County
Recovers Together, as well as a
website that
ROSC made to help people find all kinds of resources in Logan
County, not only resources for recovery.
ROSC also has a community survey that they are asking anyone who
lives in the community to fill out. This anonymous survey is
designed to help ROSC “assess public opinion on issues related to
recovery” to help them improve their services. If you are at all
interested in filling out this survey, you may do so by clicking
here.
[Matt Boutcher]
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