Their pasts are painful and dark. They've tortured their minds and abused their bodies with the worst drugs, been to prisons, ruined social ties and lost precious years of their youth. But now, having finally emerged into the light of a better life, they want to show others - those like their former selves - the way to hope and happiness.

That is why members of the Recovery Alumni Association - a nonprofit organization that supports recovering methamphetamine addicts - and several nonaddict members of the community participated in a Walk for Recovery Saturday morning in Nevada City, which began on the steps of the Nevada County Courthouse on Church Street and ended in Pioneer Park.

"It's bringing awareness to the community and showing that there are survivors (from the addiction) in the area, that we are here to help other people trying to recover, and also it is a part of the Prop. 36 program (the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act that allows first and second time nonviolent, simple drug possession offenders the chance to get treatment instead of imprisonment)," said Joel Franks, 47, a member of the association. "We are all members and graduates of this program, and it works."

Franks was one of the nearly 100 people who joined the walk. Once the group reached Pioneer Park, people settled down for food and refreshments in a sylvan, sun-drenched spot amidst the tall trees and the incessant gurgle of Deer Creek purling by.

One by one people came up to a microphone and told their stories of redemption. As one touching saga followed another, the audience applauded the speakers for their victory over one of the most dangerous addictions in the country today.

"I didn't come from a bad childhood," said Bob Rogers, 49, president and co-founder of the Recovery Alumni Association, who was an methamphetamine addict for 33 years. "I had good parents, who were very up and middle-class. I wasn't beaten as a child. My parents weren't addicts. I just liked to get high. I partied with a lot of people when I was a kid who just did as much drugs as I did, they drank as much as I did, but when things started getting out of hand and they started getting into trouble, they said, 'I better stop.'

"An addict cannot (say that). Once they get into addiction, they can't stop. There's no way - not without help."

The Recovery Alumni Association provides a variety of support for recovering addicts: properly supervised rehabilitation to miscellaneous services with their smallest necessities.

"There's no county agency to help people pay their car insurance, or pay their power, gas and electricity bill, or to buy a pair of shoes or bus passes," Rogers said. "We buy bus passes for people. We buy grocery cards for people. We do not give them cash. We get the services done ourselves.

"They have to have run out of all other sources that could be out there. They have to prove they have a need. It has to be voted on by our board - we have a nine-member board - and it has to be a unanimous vote."

Kyle Nunnink, 21, is one of the young members of the association. He was addicted for seven years and has now been clean for the past 20 months.

Nunnink has been especially active in the presentations the organization has done recently at Nevada Union High School.

"If you really want to stay clean, you've got to have boundaries with yourself and others and stay connected with positive people," he said. "If anything is contradictory to staying clean, stay away from it. It might seem fun at the time, but it doesn't get you anywhere."

One of the key steps on the path to recovering from addiction, according to both Franks and Rogers, is to attend a 12-step program.

"You have to want it," Rogers said. "You can't force-feed this to somebody."

According to Rogers, the 12-step program helped him get connected to his spiritual side.

"The whole 12-step program is designed to get you in touch with a higher power, whatever that may be for you - whether you call it God, whether you call it Mother Nature, or you call it Mother Earth," Rogers said. "I have constant contact with my God.

"They say religion is for people that are afraid to go to hell. Spirituality is for people that have already been there."

ooo

To contact staff writer Soumitro Sen, e-mail soumitros@theunion.com or call 477-4229.