People gather for Mobilize Recovery Rally in Myrtle Beach

MYRTLE BEACH S.C. (WBTW) — Community members and speakers gathered Monday at the Midtown Vineyard Church in Myrtle Beach for the Mobilize Recovery Rally.

The event, which happened at 504 27th Avenue N., brought together various recovery speakers, organization speakers and city official speakers on the topic of recovery, providing mental health awareness to the community and embracing those who are on their journey of recovery.

Mobilize Recovery Grassroots Coordinator Aaron Kucharski said the event is to help people wherever they are in their journey to recovery. He said their bus has traveled to 28 different events, 13 different states, 17 different cities and 250 local partner organizations while visiting jails, universities, recovery high schools, sober living homes and more.

He said he was inspired to see just how many people showed up to Monday’s event and is happy to know Mobilize Recovery can help those living in Myrtle Beach.

Special guest speaker and the National Office of Recovery with Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Deputy Director Michael Askew said his journey to recovery wasn’t easy.

“One day I woke up in a dark, isolated jail cell to the smell of stale body odor, wondering, ‘How did I get here again?'” Askew said. “It was the sixth time that I had been in prison. That was May 28, 1989. And I’ve never gone back, never used drugs or alcohol.”

Askew said he’s inspired to see so many people believing in a hopeful future of recovery and to come together.

“To see the many transformations that people continue to common believe, and be hopeful that there’s opportunity for them and that recovery is possible,” he said.

Sara Goldsby, the director of the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, touched on the opioid epidemic during her speech and how there are nearly 400,000 South Carolinians in recovery and more every day.

“Because every day folks are beginning their own process of change and they’re beginning their journeys,” she said. “That’s due to thousands and thousands of folks like you across the state, helping them along the way, along their process of change. We’re very proud to be supporting some of that, along with our federal leaders.”

Goldsby said the state and federal partnership is critical because they administer the resources that truly get to the local organizations and communities needed.

“We are so proud of all of these things. We’re setting expectations. That people with life experience as people in recovery themselves,” she said. “Coaches are in every place possible to relay outreach and in every place along the continuum of treatment and long term, getting people in recovery, helping people in recovery. We want that to remain strong. But we have a lot of work to do. We have a long way to go. And what we need more than ever is to build more momentum behind the universal recovery movement in South Carolina.”

People signed the mobilize recovery bus after the speakers and joined inside for more discussion, refreshments, and open arms.

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Gabby Jonas joined the News13 team as a multimedia journalist in April 2024. She is from Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State University in May 2023. Follow Gabby on X, formerly Twitter , Facebook or Instagram , and read more of her work here .

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