The road to salvation was not an easy one for Robert Toovey, but he found it on the back of a motorcycle.
Toovey is a member of the Freedom Biker Church of BC and stopped in Prince George with nine other bikers during their Recovery Ride Sunday afternoon for a barbecue at the local Harley Davidson store.
The seven-day, 3,500 kilometre trek is aimed at raising awareness for the need for recovery programs in local communities.
After years a couple of years as a southern BC street kid addicted to intravenous drugs, Toovey was taken in by a group of bikers who made him a watchdog in their shop, before his 16th birthday.
"It might not have been a glorious existence but I had my six-pack of beer and my McDonald's every day, so I was eating and drinking," the 55-year-old recalled. "To me, at that time, that was special after being a dope peddler and doing some really bad things as a street kid."
After more than a decade of sobriety, Toovey found himself heading back down a familiar path after he became dependent on a prescription painkiller while living out east.
And once again, it was the headlamps of a motorcycle that led him out of the darkness.
He returned to Vancouver and put himself into continuing treatment. A year a half ago, he was referred to the biker church, the first of its kind in Canada.
"It just flowered. It blossomed right away," said Toovey, who is now one of the church's leaders on their recovery team.
The church, which originated in North Carolina, was brought to Surrey by Pastor Chuck Pearce to spread the gospel to the biking community.
The draw of the church is unconditional acceptance, the pastor said. "Nobody's judged. You can walk in with tattoos head to toe, have a 20-year record - we get a lot of people coming out of the jails into our church."
Soon after opening its doors, the church saw a real interest from people in recovery for various addictions, Pearce said, noting there are 300 recovery homes in the church's hometown of Surrey.
But that's not the case in many of the communities the 10 riders and 23 support volunteers are visiting.
Pearce said there especially aren't enough recovery facilities for women.
"It's not just treatment for drugs and alcohol. There's a lot of abuse out there and these women stay in the abuse because there's nowhere to go," he said.
Kikino Mtis Children and Family Services partnered with the church to host the afternoon lunch. Executive director Dawn Murphy said raising awareness about the need for treatment facilities is crucial to keeping families from getting separated.
"To have agencies that work in this particular area is really important because we need to keep children at home. It's important that children understand who they are, where they belong and what their culture and identity is," Murphy said.
By the time the ride wraps up back in Surrey on July 27 - after visiting Chetwynd, Grande Prairie, Jasper, Hinton Sicamous and Kelowna - Pearce said he is also hoping to draw attention to the fact that people coming out of recovery are still integral members of society who are ready to work. He urged employers to look to recovery centres to fill employment gaps.
The primary benefactor of funds and attention from the trip is Nightshift Street Ministries, a Surrey not-for-profit society.
The group, which has been in operation for eight years providing food, clothing, friendship and guidance to the street population, is working towards opening a long-term recovery facility north of Fort St. John called the Care Village.
"We realized we needed to do more," said Nightshift founder MaryAnne Connor, who is following along behind the motorcyclists. "We were perhaps in some respects enabling and in some respects a band aid."
The 235-hectacre ranch property is designed to house those who need immediate assistance or need to "get away from the chaos of life and be still," Connor said.
"Most of the recovery houses have a policy they want people clean and sober for a time before they take them in," she explained. "That's like asking someone to jump off the bridge because in essence, they're surviving."
The ride will arrive at the Care Village site today (Monday, July 23), and Connor said she hopes to have it ready to receive its first residents early next year. For more information about the project, visit www.nightshiftministries.org. For more information about Freedom Biker Church, visit www.freedombcsurrey.com.
