STAFF REPORT
Glasgow News 1
For many in recovery, the hardest part isn’t getting sober – it’s what comes after. That reality shaped Friday’s “Voices of Recovery” event at Barren County High School.
“Voices of Recovery is a community gathering focused on sharing stories of resilience and hope,” said Christie Wall, co-founder of Community Partners for Recovery. “This event is based on breaking stigma and strengthening our community through connection and understanding.”
That stigma, Wall explained, often lingers long after the substance use itself has ended.
“These individuals that we see daily, they are repairing their lives,” she said. “They’re trying to get back into their community, trying to job hunt…so it’s important for those stigmas to break because being reminded of their past and what they have done can be very triggering.”
That idea – that recovery does not end when sobriety begins – echoed throughout the afternoon, carried most profoundly through the stories of three speakers who each brought their own lived experience to the stage.
The keynote speaker, Beverly Vance Aikins, spoke not only as a mother – widely known as the parent of Vice President JD Vance – but as someone marking a decade of sobriety. Her story, while rooted in hardship, has led her to a place she once could not have imagined.
“Well, my life is pretty good,” she said. “I get to travel around and speak, I am a director of nursing for a substance abuse facility and I’ve got my kids back in my life so I get to see and spend time with them.”
Though it was her first visit to Glasgow, Aikins said her mission remains the same wherever she goes.
“I feel like if I touch one person and give one person hope then I’ve done my job,” she said. “Hopefully, more, but my goal is to touch at least one.”
That same sense of purpose was reflected in fellow speaker Bambi Adams, who described the visible shift she sees when sharing her story.
“When I’m telling my story, highlighting the powerpoints of what happened in my life, I watch people start looking up,” she said. “And when I say looking up, I mean they’re looking to God, because it’s just powerful, it’s hard for me to put into words.”
After surviving an overdose, Adams began her recovery journey and has been sober since 2018. She credits her grandmother’s unwavering support – and her faith – for helping sustain that change.
“God showed up and he changed me from the inside out, and I will never stop telling people,” she said.
Faith also shaped the story of Starr Whitlow, though her path to recovery was marked by profound trauma that began in childhood.
“I was kidnapped by my father when I was 8-years old, I had my first shot of dope at the age of 9,” Whitlow recalled. “He had handcuffed me to a bed where men raped and molested me, that’s how my addiction started.”
Whitlow emphasized that for some, addiction is not a choice but something imposed upon them – a response to circumstances beyond their control. That early trauma followed her into adulthood, where she found herself repeating cycles of abuse.
“I didn’t know how to live,” she said.
Yet even as she recounted those experiences, Whitlow, now five years sober, maintained a sense of perspective shaped by her recovery.
“Do I regret what happened? No, because it made me who I am,” she said. “Sometimes it’s not the hand that we’re dealt, but the hand that we make.”
By the end of the event, the stories shared inside the cafeteria had done more than recount hardship – they reframed it, offering a message that recovery is not only possible, but ongoing, and that understanding from the broader community can be just as critical as the work done within.
Key Facts:
• Community “Voices of Recovery” event held at Barren County High School in Glasgow
• Organized with Community Partners for Recovery to share stories of resilience and hope
• Speakers in long-term recovery described the challenges that continue after sobriety
• Event emphasized breaking stigma and supporting people rebuilding their lives
• Dozens of community members and local leaders attended, according to organizers
Gage Wilson with Glasgow News 1 contributed to this reporting.
Comments