At the Recovery Day event, people enjoy each other and share their stories. Here Michael Willis, a volunteer, paints a tribute to his late older brother. Photos by Neal Wong / Tenderloin Voice.
Hundreds of people gathered under a clear sky at Boeddeker Park on Friday afternoon for the sixth annual Recovery Day, a celebration of people recovering from drug addiction.
The space was packed with community leaders, politicians, locals, and clients from recovery programs across the city. Service providers gave out free food, socks, and resource pamphlets as speakers and performers took the stage to inform and entertain.
Richard Beal, director of recovery services at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and a co-founder of local nonprofit Brothers Against Drug Deaths, started Recovery Day in 2021.
“The pandemic traumatized the whole community,” Beal said. “People were disconnected from their case managers and counselors. So I said, ‘Okay, let’s do Recovery Day outside,’ and so no perfect place to do it but Boeddeker Park.”
Richard Beal, co-founder of Brothers Against Drug Deaths, poses with a certificate of honor that he received at Recovery Day for creating the event.
The park was chosen because it used to be a hotbed of substance abuse. Beal used drugs there himself in the early 1990s, but he’s been sober since July 1995. Around that time, he participated in events that inspired the modern Recovery Day.
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“I used to be part of a men’s support group called Men in Motion,” Beal said. At the time, the group would meet at Boeddeker Park, sometimes talking to the people who used drugs there about quitting. “Then we used to come in the park, we just set up a speaker and a microphone and start talking about recovery.”
The park’s namesake, Alfred Boeddeker, founded the St. Anthony Foundation, the organization that Beal credits with his sobriety.
“It’s just come full circle for me,” Beal said. “Here today, we got people doing a barbershop, we got the library giving out recovery books, we got the C.A.R.E. program giving out snow cones.” Community Awareness Resources Entity is a Potrero Hill nonprofit that hosts events and provides food, other resources, and referrals to social services.
Matt Dorsey, who represents SoMa and Treasure Island on the Board of Supervisors and is running for re-election this November, was at the event marking his five years, 10 months, and 28 days clean.
“I’m gonna admit, when I got onto the board, I was high risk. I had really struggled with my sobriety,” Dorsey said. “But at a time like this, we in the recovery community really have a moment where we need to bring our perspective and our voice.”
Kimberly Leaea, a volunteer, makes a snow cone.
Dorsey talked about policies and programs vital to people battling addiction, including Read to Recovery, which stocks free-to-keep books about recovery at every library branch. He also announced that he was working on a pet kennel program for people entering recovery.
“I think it would make a huge difference for people who are ready to get into drug treatment, but they can’t, because they don’t have a place to bring their animals,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey said rehabilitation programs often don’t allow pets. He has been working with the mayor’s office, SPCA, and Animal Care & Control to change that through legislation that he expects to be ready next year.
At the event, Beal received a certificate of honor from the Board of Supervisors for creating Recovery Day. It was presented by supervisors Dorsey, Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin and other neighborhoods, and Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro District.
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman poses with Calvin “Cregg” Johnson, who founded Positive Directions Equals Changes and received a Board of Supervisors certificate of honor.
Mandelman also presented a certificate to Calvin “Cregg” Johnson, founder of service provider Positive Directions Equals Changes and director of the James Baldwin Place sober living program. Johnson used drugs for about 25 years before going to prison, becoming sober, and doing nonprofit work for about 30 years.
“I do it because it has to be done,” Johnson said. “I’m not good at taking certificates and being in recognition.”
He said that many of the people he’s helped were at the event, and seeing them made him feel overwhelmed.
“I don’t be realizing that that many people’s lives I have touched,” Johnson said. “I don’t even realize I do that.”
At the Tenderloin Voice, we try to cover the important things that have seldom gotten media attention. That includes Recovery Day — even though this was its sixth year.
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Del Seymour, founder of Code Tenderloin, dealt with addiction for 18 years, until one day he just stopped.
“The day I got clean, I was on the way to get some dope,” Seymour said. “Whatever it was — my metabolism, or my God, or the community — whatever, told me to turn around. And I turned around and never used drugs again.”
Now affectionately called the “mayor of the Tenderloin,” he said he loved seeing the community at the event.
“I wish we could do it every day,” Seymour said.
At one of the art tables, Michael Willis painted a tribute to his older brother, who died two years ago after taking a counterfeit pill — a type of imitation medication that often contains lethal illicit drugs (such as fentanyl), incorrect ingredients, or no active medicine at all. Willis himself has been in recovery from opioids for the past several months and volunteered to help with the event.
He was inspired, hearing the speakers talk about their own recovery journeys.
“It’s motivating to know it’s possible,” Willis said. “They went through the same stuff I went through.”
Bridget Tillum, barber and health advocate with GLIDE Memorial Church, gives Michael Carter a haircut.
A few tables over, Bridget Tillum provided free haircuts. The barber and health care advocate with GLIDE Memorial Church grew up around family members who struggled with substance use.
“The biggest thing I got from all the stories and information I received is that there’s always hope,” Tillum said. “When there’s hope, there’s the possibility of recovery.”
Attendee W. O. Duffy, a resident of the Tenderloin for 40 years, remembered the park when it was a bowling alley and reflected on changes in the neighborhood. He also appreciated the great weather.
“We got blessed for this event,” Duffy said. “It’s a beautiful day. I ran into some of my friends, I got to schmooze with some of the elected officials.”
I’m a journalist and photographer covering the city I was born and raised in. My work has appeared in the San Francisco Standard and San Francisco Public Press, among others. I hold a B.A. in Journalism from SF State. Contact me: nealwong0@gmail.com
