Tri-County Board marks 50 years of service

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PIQUA — The Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services gathered for its annual meeting and dinner on Wednesday at Edison State Community College, celebrating 50 years of service to the Miami, Darke, and Shelby County communities.

“We’ve been preparing for the 50th anniversary for most of this year,” said Brad Reed, director of community resources development for the Tri-County Board “The board was formerly made a three-county board in 1968. Since then, it’s gone through a number of changes — our mission has changed and our focus has changed, but the mental health component has always been there. What we wanted to do in this retrospective of the last 50 years was highlight the individuals that have been influential in shaping how the Tri-County Board has responded to mental health challenges and addiction challenges.

“Tonight, we’re featuring a list of all the people who have been on the board since 1968,” Reed said. “Without that board, we couldn’t have the connection to the community that we have. We’ve also examined the history of the board staff, and the majority have been affiliated with the board for 10 years or more.”

Volunteers in the board’s 50-year history total 137 board members, with 5 median years of service each and a combined 728 years of service.

The event also featured the Art of Recovery reception in Edison’s Myers-Vaccaro Art Gallery, featuring 62 individual entries. This marked the 10th year that the board has hosted Art of Recovery, and the fourth year that the gallery has been held at Edison.

“What the gallery does is allow us an opportunity to celebrate recovery,” Reed said. “People with mental health and addiction challenges who are in recovery themselves or who work with people to support their recovery enter artwork each year. We never know what’s going to come in, and every year my expectations are exceeded.”

The gallery will be on display at Edison through Wednesday, Oct. 24.

Featured guest speakers at the event included Dr. Mark Hurst, director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and Rusty Harden, a Tipp City artist who provided a demonstration on how art helps recovery.

The event’s theme, “Honoring the Past, Building the Future,” stood to highlight not only a celebration of the board’s decades of service, but also its potential for growth throughout the northern Miami Valley.

“We have two building projects underway,” Reed noted, referring to One Wellness Place, a partnership for healthy living currently being planned for Miami County’s 25-A corridor, and the Sheriff’s Treatment and Recovery (STAR) House, which is under construction in Sidney and tentatively set to open in mid-2019.

“For the foreseeable future, our role is going to be more about providing infrastructure and making sure that it’s in place for services to be provided.”

For more information, visit www.tcbmds.org.

Cody Willoughby | Troy Daily News Trevar Martin, 9, of Greenville examines a sculpture on display in the Art of Recovery gallery during the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services 50th anniversary celebration on Wednesday at Edison State Community College.
https://www.sidneydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2018/10/web1_ArtofRecovery1.jpgCody Willoughby | Troy Daily News Trevar Martin, 9, of Greenville examines a sculpture on display in the Art of Recovery gallery during the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services 50th anniversary celebration on Wednesday at Edison State Community College.

Cody Willoughby | Troy Daily News Jerry Herbe and Madeleine Schneider of Piqua examine the entries on display in the Art of Recovery gallery during the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services 50th anniversary celebration on Wednesday at Edison State Community College.
https://www.sidneydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2018/10/web1_ArtofRecovery2.jpgCody Willoughby | Troy Daily News Jerry Herbe and Madeleine Schneider of Piqua examine the entries on display in the Art of Recovery gallery during the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services 50th anniversary celebration on Wednesday at Edison State Community College.

https://www.sidneydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2018/10/web1_TriCounty1-copy.jpg

By Cody Willoughby

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