Big Turnout for Dick Beardsley Run for Recovery
As part of National Recovery Month, over 100 runners gathered at Lindenwood Park in Fargo to raise money and awareness for addiction recovery.
It’s all for the Dick Beardsley Run for Recovery.
The turnout for the run was much higher than expected.
Director of First Step Recovery Michael Kaspari said he only expected about 75 people to show up.
“I think addiction is something that’s so rampant all around and you know I would think anybody who needs that kind of help, if there’s something simple I can do like raise just a little bit of money to help them. Absolutely on board,” says runner Amy Bannor.
This is the first year the race has been held and with the recent increase in opioid use in the Fargo–Moorhead area, for some it couldn’t come at a better time.
“The problem we’ve been having in our local community, to come out and support something that’s been very prominent in the news to really help people locally,” says runner Judy Fisher.
A big part of this event is spreading awareness and everyone was ecstatic to see how supportive the community response is in the area.
“Have people in the community see what the face of recovery looks like. It looks like you, it looks like me, it looks like all of us here,” says Kaspari.
Hall–of Fame Runner Dick Beardsley is the face of this event.
After recovering from an addiction to prescription painkillers, this subject is very important to him.
“I got to the point where it was either, okay you’re going to die or you’re going to live. The only way I was going to live was is I got into treatment,” says Beardsley.
And that’s a message he hopes to spread to other addicts.
“It gives you hope. You know they say you can live 40 days without food, seven days without water, a few minutes without breathing but you can’t live one second without hope,” Beadsley says.
First Step is also hosting nationally well–known author William C. Moyers at the Avalon Events Center on September 28th for Recovery Month.
Click this link for more details.
