Amanda Depew from Illinois Joining Forces speaks during the Love Recovery event on Friday, Feb. 6, at Carlyle VFW. Photo by Matt Wilson There were approximately 100 people who attended the Love Recovery 2026 event at VFW Post No. 2523 Auxiliary Hall in Carlyle on Friday, Feb. 6.
The event was hosted by Take Action Coalition of Clinton County and was a free, substance-free, family-friendly event celebrating connection, healing, and recovery in all its forms. It welcomed individuals in recovery, those supporting loved ones, people exploring what recovery means to them, and community members interested in learning about local resources in a stigma-free inclusive environment.
Community organizations hosted resource tables, offering information and support related to mental health, substance use, harm reduction, and overall community wellness.
“Thank you all for being here tonight and for helping make Love Recovery 2026 what it is,” event organizer Sheridan Jordan said. “It’s really special to see this room full of people showing up for community, connection, and support for one another.”
Guest speakers for the evening were Amanda Depew from Illinois Joining Forces and recovering addict Clayton Miller.
Depew is a veteran and a person in recovery. She said that everybody’s story is different, and everyone’s recovery journey is different. There is no single right way to get and stay in recovery.
“If you are in this room today, however, you arrived, and that matters,” Depew said.
Clayton Miller speaks during the Love Recovery event on Friday, Feb. 6. at the Carlyle VFW. Photos by Matt Wilson She has been through treatment programs and sat in the chairs those in the audience are sitting in. She said she is better for it. Before Depew became a social worker and did outreach throughout southern Illinois, she was just a person trying to survive her own life.
Depew is an Air Force veteran and was deployed to Afghanistan. She said, like a lot of people, she just learned how to push through, how to ignore pain, and how to keep going no matter the cost. Depew said what she didn’t learn was how to slow down, how to ask for help, or how to sit with what she was carrying. She said alcohol became a solution before it became a problem, and then quietly and relentlessly, it became a problem.
“Getting sober was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but not because I didn’t want a better life, but because alcohol became how I coped, was how I numbed, how I avoided,” Depew said. “So letting go of that meant facing things that I had spent years running from.”
She said recovery asked more out of her than what she thought she had to give. It asked for honesty when she was used to hiding. It asked for vulnerability when she had built her identity around being strong. It asked her to ask for help when she wanted to handle the situation alone.
“Let me be clear, treatment didn’t fix me, because I wasn’t broken,” Depew said. “But it gave me tools and language and gave me permission to heal. And most importantly it showed me I wasn’t alone.”
She said she still doesn’t have it all figured out, but is deeply grateful. She said recovery is a gift that she doesn’t always recognize at first and one she doesn’t take for granted now.
“Recovery didn’t just remove alcohol from my life, it gave me my life back,” Depew said. “It gave me clarity. It gave me connection. It gave me the ability to sit with myself and not need to escape.”
Cecilia Deaton, LEFT, and Emma Davis pose for a picture during the Love Recovery event at Carlyle VFW. Photo by Matt Wilson Depew said recovery doesn’t mean life suddenly becomes easy, it means life becomes honest. She said honest living, while sometimes uncomfortable, is where the real freedom lives. Today, she gets to show up as a clinician who understands what it feels like to be on the other side of the desk. She said she couldn’t have done that without recovery.
“If you are new to this, if today feels uncertain, heavy, or overwhelming, you are not weak for being here,” Depew said. “You are brave. If you have been walking this path for a while, your presence matters more than you know. Someone is watching you and realizing that this is possible.”
Depew said everyone recovers differently, but what matters is that they keep choosing themselves one day at a time. Recovery is not about perfection, it’s about progress, connection and hope.
Depew said those who are early in recovery should stay in the room, stay in a conversation and stay connected, even on the days they don’t want to. She commented, “You don’t have to decide what forever looks like, you just have to decide what today looks like.”
She said those who are further along in the journey should be visible.
“Your story matters and your presence matters,” Depew said. “The way you show up gives someone permission to keep going. You don’t have to have the perfect words, sometimes just being seen living well is enough.”
She asked for everyone, no matter where they are in their journey, to commit to ask for help sooner, not later. She said people are recovering because they are human.
“Recovery is not a finish line, it’s a daily practice,” Depew said. “It’s choosing yourself again and again, even when it’s uncomfortable, even when it’s hard, even when it’s quiet and no one is watching.”
Following the speakers, there was dancing and music at the Love Recovery event at Carlyle. Depew asked everyone to choose one right next step, make the call and go to the meeting and accept the help.
Four years ago, Miller did inpatient at Gateway Foundation in Swansea. He receives his four-year sobriety coin in two weeks. He is a single father with full sobriety, which allowed him to have full custody of his children.
Miller is from Troy. He said from an early age, he can remember sneaking communion wine.
“Alcohol was very intriguing to me at a young age,” Miller said. “It was always this mystical thing of wonder.”
Miller grew up liking to party and took it to extremes. He was president of his college fraternity. He said even in that scenario, he still drank differently and still had one more than everyone else.
“For me, the recovery has been difficult, because alcohol became such a huge part of my identity,” Miller said.
Miller entered into a recovery program not knowing what he was doing. He didn’t get a sponsor, he just knew the center was somewhere he needed to be.
“That was probably the worst two or three months,” Miller said. “There is nothing worse than a head full of AA and a belly full of booze.”
He said the Take Action Coalition of Clinton County is the best program he has come across bar none.
“There are people here tonight that will tell you promising stories and that dreams do come true,” Miller said.
Miller advised anyone new to the program to listen, follow the steps and get a sponsor. He said his sobriety date is not the date he got out of rehab, but instead is the date he reached out to his sponsor and asked him to be his sponsor on Feb. 22, 2022.
“I still talk to the man every single day,” Miller said. “We don’t skip a beat. We check on each other. It has become a mutual thing.”
Miller said he was always a “yes man.” He said he was going to survive anything because God had a plan for him. Two years into his sobriety, there was an abusive situation with his wife and children. DCFS got involved and an investigation found that Miller was 100% and able to take care of his children.
“This program is what allowed me to be there to save my kids and save myself,” Miller said.
Miller always had excuses as to why he didn’t take on a sponsee. He now has a sponsee who is three weeks sober.
“He was sent to me to have the come to Jesus meeting with him because he was showing up smelling like booze,” Miller said. “Everybody thought I would be the best person to talk to him. We had the meeting. He cried, and after he left he called me and asked me to be his sponsor.”
Following the speakers, the celebration started with music and dancing.
Jordan thanked the Carlyle VFW for hosting the event, HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital for donating the food, Covered in Chocolate for the dessert donation, Excel Bottling for donating the soda, Darren Warden for DJing the event, and Mod Social for donating the photo booth.
“Thank all of you for showing up, supporting one another, and for being a part of a community that truly cares,” Jordan said. “
Any leftover food was donated to a local homeless shelter.
