YORK COUNTY, Va. - A local treatment facility for addiction is hosting a candlelight vigil Friday night in an effort to show that victims of overdose are more than the illness that took their lives.
Faith Recovery is a faith-based nonprofit addiction treatment program on Ewell Road.
The evening of remembrance will begin at 5 p.m. with the planting of flowers at a new serenity garden on the program's campus. Around 6:30, a candlelight vigil will begin inside the program's chapel.
It comes at the end of Overdose Awareness Week. According to the newest data from the Virginia Department of Health, more than 2,200 in the commonwealth died from overdose in 2023 — down from over 2,400 the year before.
North Carolina saw more than 4,100, down around 100 from 2022.
Faith Recovery has been helping people overcome their addictions for more than four decades.
Formerly Youth Challenge of Hampton Roads, the program moved from its longtime home in downtown Newport News to York County in early 2023. News 3 was there the day residents began moving into the location, which currently has around 14 beds for men in the program.
Faith Recovery Executive Director Travis Hall says the quieter location has been an improvement for residents and detailed a first-time clinical portion of the program that just opened in the last month.
“The mind is the decision-maker, even in our spiritual journey," Hall told News 3. "The bible says it’s with our mind that we serve the lord and that we’re transformed by the renewal of our mind so being able to integrate both biblical principles and clinical practices really helps them understand why they think [and to] overcome all the negative thinking patterns.”
Resident Kenny Arzu came to Faith Recovery in May and is one of the first to go through the program in its new format. He says he has a month or so left and is thinking of his friends who didn't survive their addictions.
“A lot of times they feel like they’re okay and they show the world, like ‘I’m fine, I’m okay.’ And they’re really not," he said. "I’ve been there myself. I’ve been in that dark place and it really does hurt.”
Arzu is planning to be part of the candlelight vigil Friday night.
Faith Recovery says the serenity garden at the center was built by Shay Peaks Outdoors, owned by a former resident of the program. A current resident, Buddy Dozier, also volunteered in its construction.
Flowers were donated by Bennett's Creek Wholesale Nursery, with nameplates made by Fleming's Engraving and the project funded by a women's bible study in Yorktown.
