Wayne Allen | Daily Times

The staff of the St. Lucy House along with supportors stand beside the recovery quilt.

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Wayne Allen

PDT Staff Writer

A recovery quilt celebration was held on Friday at The Counseling Center’s Clubhouse located on 11th Street Portsmouth. The purpose of the event was to celebrate the completion of a recovery quilt made by the residents of the St. Lucy’s House.

According to released information promoting the celebration, “Recovery is a process filled with emotion, sacrifice, and amazing milestones. For many, it is also accompanied by self expression through art, poetry, and music. For the ladies at St. Lucy’s, their recovery is now marked by a commemorative quilt filled with inspirational quotes and artwork that they created.”

Gina Collinsworth, Director of Community Relations and Development, Compass Community Health and The Counseling Center said, “The girls of St. Lucy’s have made a recovery quilt with inspirational sayings, that helped them get through the whole (recovery) process. We are so lucky in the recovery community because we have such great support.”

She said Barb Burke and Kendra Hughes took the completed squares decorated by the St. Lucy’s residents and put them together to form the quilt.

“I think the symbolism of the quilt is a great one. No one’s perfect and we all have to take the pieces of our lives and stitch them together as pretty as we can,” Collinsworth said.

Ed Hughes, CEO of Compass Community Health addressed those in attendance and said the quilt is inspirational.

“One of the things that has always been very special here at The Counseling Center has been the way that we’ve been embraced. Our staff, our services and the people that come to receive services from us have been embraced by the community and by people who look at what happens to the many miracles of recovery here, and says I would like to be a little piece of that in some way,” Hughes said. “This (quilt) is very special and I am very grateful for all the work that you (residents of St. Lucy’s House) did and put into it. This will be very important to you the people that come after you.”

Collinsworth said the quilt will be on display at the clubhouse for the next month or two. Then the quilt will be taken The Counseling Centers’ new location on Court Street in Portsmouth where it will be on display.

For more information about The Counseling Center and it’s services visit, www.thecounselingcenter.org.

Wayne Allen may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 228, or tallen@civitasmedia.com