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Rotary learns about recovery home

The Inter-Mountain photo by Dan Geohagan Stewart Strong, of the Lighthouse Community Recovery Home in Elkins, speaks about addiction with the help of Cookie Monster.

ELKINS — This week the Elkins Rotary Club welcomed guest speaker Stewart Strong of the Lighthouse Community Recovery Home.

Strong was a drug abuse counselor at Huttonsville Correctional Center before retiring last year. It was at this time that Strong felt he needed to do more to reach out and help with the community by aiding those who are recovering from drugs but are still learning to overcome the addiction. So Strong and his wife Sue bought the former site of Nella’s Nursing Home, located at 301 Central Street in Elkins.

“What I would like to do is to share with you our take on addiction,” Strong told the Rotarians. “I am sure you are all aware we have something of a problem with that (addiction) in our community right now.”

Lighthouse Community Recovery Home provides housing for recovering addicts who have completed rehab. The program receives no government grants or funding and is solely paid for by Strong and his wife, he said.

The program participants provide $15 a day for their lodging once they are settled and have a job, Strong said. To help with some of the costs of the program, the Strongs rent out 10 apartments in another portion of the building.

With drug use being on the increase, Strong said people often have a predisposition about addiction.

“Some people say it’s a disease or a moral issue,” he said. “Rather than tell you what everyone says, I will let you know what we think. We believe that the addict is alive and well within the person. There is another person in that person who doesn’t want to use drugs or alcohol anymore. The problem is that the addict is so strong that the other person can’t survive or co-exist in the mind of that one person.”

Strong noted some believe fear is a solid deterrent to crime and addiction.

“All I know about fear,” said Strong, “fear is like trying to sit on a beach ball in a swimming pool and making sure it doesn’t come up. It has a mind of its own and will still come to the surface.”

Strong said he believes fear is not an applicable tool for aiding those are seeking help with addiction.

“We have rules,” said Strong. “This isn’t prison but we still have rules. So, the person needs an upgrade or a maturity of their value system and that’s the way we approach it.”

The program has been up and running for six months, he noted. The participants of the Lighthouse also benefit the community by providing various tasks around the area, such as shoveling snow, Strong said.

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