MORGANTOWN — Milan Puskar Health Right had all the bases covered Thursday as the community turned out on a cool afternoon to celebrate a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Health Right’s new Friendship Community in Recovery facility, 277 Don Knotts Blvd.
They had food.
They had music.
They had informational handouts.
They had a Tusken Raider, a Stormtrooper and a Dark Lord of the Sith.
I guess if you’re going to throw a party on May 4, you better expect some scum and villainy might show up.
“It’s May the Fourth. Why not,” Kait Layman laughed. “We’re having fun.”
Layman is Health Right’s Recovery Centers director.
And fun, she explained, is what the new facility is all about.
“One of the really cool things we’re doing here is what we call Recovery Nightlife. For example, you can’t play pool anywhere in Morgantown that isn’t a bar, so we put a pool table in here. We’re going to hold weekend pool tournaments and other weekend activities, Layman said. “The community needed a safe place to go on the weekends when everybody else is out partying and drinking.”
Friendship Community in Recovery is what’s called a Recovery Community Organization. It’s one of seven grant-funded RCOs opening across West Virginia.
Everyone who works at the facility will have lived experience in addiction and recovery. It will serve as a meeting place for AA, NA and all-recovery meetings. People are welcome to bring their children.
“This program is a safe space for people in recovery. You don’t have to be free of drug use to be here, but you cannot be actively intoxicated or under the influence of drugs when you come in,” Health Right Executive Director Laura Jones said. “Recovery is any positive change, big or small. It could be that we help someone fill out a foodstamp application, or we help get them into treatment.”
The facility is replacing Health Right’s old Friendship House, which closed its Walnut Street location on Feb. 28, ending nearly 60 years in downtown Morgantown.
Layman said she expects the new recovery center will leave its own legacy as well.
“What this looks like here today is not going to be what it looks like a year from now because it’s going to change with the community,” she said. “That’s what it’s for, community.”
The closure of the old Friendship House came in response to an offer from the city of Morgantown, which approached Health Right in 2021 offering $800,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money if Health Right would move Friendship House and the Spruce Street clinic out of the downtown.
Health Right purchased a new clinic location near Hazel’s House of Hope on Scott Avenue, but a project to expand and move into that new facility is currently on hold due to cost overruns.
