Bringing Hope and Healing to the Iron Range
The annual Iron Range Recovery Night Out, held Thursday evening, moved from its usual location in Olcott Park to the Iron Trail Motors Event Center because of rain, but that didn’t dampen the celebration.
Recovery Night Out is held each September to coincide with National Recovery Month and is designed as a free, family-friendly way to celebrate and support individuals in recovery from substance use and mental health challenges, support those currently on their healing journey, and honor loved ones and allies.
The program’s main objectives are to reduce stigma and normalize conversations around addiction and mental health. Build community to foster connections, hope, and mutual support across the Iron Range. Connect attendees with local support systems, advocacy groups, and health resources, and offer an evening of family-friendly fun featuring inspiring stories, music, food, games, and kids’ activities.
The annual event is a collaborative community effort put together by the RAD, Recovery Alliance Duluth, and the Virginia Police Department.
Virginia Deputy Chief of Police Chad Nickila spoke about the event. “This is the 6th annual Recovery Night Out. We first did it. The first year I reached out to RAD because there wasn’t anything like this on the Range but I’d seen several posts about them doing recovery events and we’re talking about recovery. Talking about people that are recovering from drug or alcohol abuse, things like that. I just told myself, “Why don’t we do something like that on the Range?” There are so many people up here that struggle with mental health issues, chemical dependency issues. Why don’t we bring a little bit of a spotlight on it and let people that that, especially if you’re in recovery or trying to get into recovery, there’s a place where you can come and have a safe night out, be around people that are here, have resources available and RAD thought it was a great idea. So we’ve been partnering with them all these years now. It works out wonderful.”
“Today was amazing because, with Olcott Park rained out, I was able to call the ITMEC staff, and then, on a whim, we were, yeah, absolutely. You guys come down. So the bottom line is, for the police department, it’s so huge to support people getting into recovery and those who are in recovery, because when you have healthy individuals, that makes those families healthier. It makes the communities a whole lot healthier. To me, that’s a win. It helps with crime rates; it helps with domestic issues. It helps with mental health issues. So again, it’s a complete win. It’s a no-brainer for us as a police department to support something like this.”
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