A small group gathered in Layla’s Cafe in the Lummi Indian Business Council administration building Monday, celebrating six people more than one year clean and sober.
Outreach worker Hanah Warthan beamed as she handed over laminated certificates and Fred Meyer gift cards on International Recovery Day to mark the achievement of reaching out, getting help and starting a recovery journey.
Warthan runs Mission for Missy, a group that goes into Bellingham encampments to provide Narcan and food and offers to drive people to detox. For some of the people honored, their past struggles included living at one of those encampments, including the Walmart encampment that will likely be cleared soon after a judge last week ordered the landowner to address the encampment immediately.
James Scott now works in human resources in the Lummi Indian Business Council building. But just a couple of years ago, he was homeless, staying at the WinCo and Walmart encampments and struggling with addictions to meth and fentanyl.
He said the Walmart encampment was a “whole different world.”
“There, you’re fighting to live another day,” he said. Scott was in and out of jail, and one day, set up detox for himself through Lummi CARE. He then went to treatment in Yakima for two months.
Now, he’s working at the business council and living with his father and his 18-year-old son. He said he got to see his son graduate from high school this year.
Scott tells people still in addiction that the best thing they can do is “reach out,” calling it “80 percent of the battle.”
When asked what his future holds, Scott pointed at Warthan. He said he wants to be a mentor to younger Lummi tribal members and even people his own age who are struggling with addiction.
Janet Prince was also honored. Now over a year sober, she has her own apartment and attends college. Her challenges with addiction began when she was 12 years old, and she lived behind WinCo for a period of time. The city cleared that encampment in May 2023.
Prince said living in the encampment was the “lowest point of her life.”
“There didn’t really seem a way out at that point,” she said. She credits her where she is today to her spirituality.
“Every day is a blessing. I’m getting more hopeful,” she said.
Prince is studying entrepreneurship at Northwest Indian College and hopes to open some businesses on Lummi to create more job opportunities on the reservation.
Celestina Scott, who also lived behind WinCo for a few months, said the outreach workers just kept coming to check on them.
“One day I was just tired of it,” she said. That day, Scott followed Lummi CARE outreach workers and never returned to the encampment. She’s now also regained custody of her children and has been clean and sober for more than a year.
Warthan started Mission for Missy in honor of her son Adrian Valentino’s girlfriend Marissa (Missy), who died of an overdose at age 19.
“It really shook my family,” Warthan said. “[Mission for Missy] has been such a healing process for us.”
On Monday, she gave a certificate to her son.
“I want you to put this on your wall and I want you to remember how hard you worked to get here,” Warthan said to Valentino. “Missy would be so proud of you, and I’m so proud of you.”
Warthan said she wanted to put on the little ceremony to give them “the recognition they deserve” and show other people that recovery is possible.
“What they have done, others can do. Pull from their stories, pull that strength that you need to even get up, to stand back up when you fall,” Warthan said.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
