By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
While the sky may have been overcast on Thursday, it still couldn’t dampen the spirits in Bucyrus as the community celebrated the opening of the Sycamore Recovery House.
Thursday’s event was a culmination of efforts that took a few years to go from drawing board to reality. Members of Together We Hurt Together We Heal, along with community and state leaders celebrated with a ribbon cutting at the Sycamore House on Wayne Avenue signifying its opening.
Mary Jean Hensley explained that it took the group a while before finding the right location for the house.
“We looked long and hard. We looked in the country, we looked in town, we looked in Galion, we looked in Crestline, all around. It was a challenge. We were met with some obstacles, but I truly believe that this is where God has meant for us to be,” Hensley said.
Hensley was overcome with emotion after the hard work paid off in being able to open the Sycamore House.
“It made me cry, I have been emotional all day long. This is exciting, this is really exciting to me. We hit a lot of road blocks and obstacles, for this to really be happening is super exciting to me. I can see that God has been with us through this whole transition,” Hensley said.
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Helping spruce up the house prior to its grand opening was a Together We Hurt Together We Heal success story – Josh Spears. Spears was proud of the work that went into the house prior to its grand opening.
“It feels pretty good considering my past and everything. It is just good to be on the other side of things, and to be doing something good that is making a difference,” Spears said.
Bucyrus Police Chief Dave Koepke felt that the opening of the house provided hope for the community.
“This is a long overdue step in the right direction. This is just building up hope and defeating pessimism. The battle of addiction is about depression and pessimism, and this is just the polar opposite. It is about love and support, and hope, everything falls back to hope and of course it is an individual.” Koepke said.
Koepke added that the brick house standing on Wayne Avenue has added symbolism.
“The house has been here for a long time, it is made of bricks it is not falling down. There is some symbolism in a brick house. This is a brick house filled with love,” Koepke continued.
Crawford County Court of Common Pleas Judge Sean Leuthold visited the Sycamore House to give his support.
“I think that recovery houses are a tremendous benefit to what we are trying to accomplish in Crawford County. We want people to get clean, and we want them to go back to being productive law abiding citizens,” Leuthold said. “We are taking people who have suffered from addiction, who are currently in recovery and now we are trying to assist them in that recovery and lead them down the right path. And if somebody finds success with their families and their careers it is certainly less likely that they will go down the path of using drugs again, so I think it is a step in the right direction.”
After cutting the ribbon to the house, Reverend Mike Corwin of the First Methodist Church of Bucyrus led the group in prayer, and consecrated the house.
Representative from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Office Tammy Puff passed along support for the Sycamore Recovery House from state offiicals.
“It is terrific. It is great to see communities from all over the state try to address our drug issues, it is definitely an epidemic, and it is great to see communities working together,” Puff explained.
The Sycamore Recovery House was made possible through grants from the Crawford-Marion ADAMH Board, Ohio MHAS, United Way, and the Community Foundation for Crawford County. For more information on the Sycamore Recovery House, visit Together We Hurt Together We Heal’s website at www.twhtwh.com, or call them at 419-689-6427.