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Recovery in the News
Board hears presentation on addiction recovery
Jake Palmateer
The Daily Star
September 4, 2008
COOPERSTOWN — The Otsego County Board of Representatives heard from one of its department heads Wednesday on the importance of supporting addiction-recovery efforts.
Edmond Marchi, the administrator of Otsego Manor, said there are hundreds of people in Otsego County on any given day in recovery from addiction, including himself.
Marchi was arrested Jan. 6, 2007, for driving while intoxicated after he crashed his car, later pleading guilty and receiving probation. On Feb. 5, 2007, he was found to be drunk at work, according to county officials.
Marchi, who spoke to the county board as part of a presentation from the Friends of Recovery of Delaware and Otsego Counties Inc., said his recovery began Feb. 6, 2007.
"When I was driving, I exposed our community to risk," Marchi said.
Marchi said it is important for officials to realize the good work that is done at the county level to assist people in their recovery efforts.
He and the other speakers, Betty Currier and Brig Seaver, also said that often the community only remembers the bad things people do while they are in the grips of their addictions.
"Those in recovery can be an example for others," Marchi said.
Friends of Recovery of Delaware and Otsego Counties Inc. is sponsoring the sixth annual Rally For Recovery on Sept. 20 in Oneonta's Wilber Park. The event, from noon to 4 p.m., will feature voter registration, live music, a recovery walk, food, games and activities.
Currier, president of Friends of Recovery of Delaware and Otsego Counties, introduced Marchi and Seaver and said she was 32 years into long-term recovery from alcohol abuse.
"My recovery is the most precious gift I have ever been given," Currier said, but often, "all you remember is how we were at our worst."
The rally in Wilber Park is a family event, she said, because families, as well as individuals, are affected by addiction and benefit from recovery.
"My story is not too unusual," Seaver said. "I was pretty much a typical teenage drunk. My problem is I never grew out of it and I stayed that way for 30 years."
But, Seaver said, he has been sober for 12 years, and even that isn't unusual: "The reality is that there are millions of people who do recover from alcoholism."
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