Organizers say annual chili cook-off raises awareness

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Sheriff Scott Chitwood, left, Claude Craig, middle, and Chris McDaniel judge chili on the Dalton Green Friday. Numbers were written on the bottom of each bowl that corresponded with the different chili cooks. Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen
Brian Croft, right, hands the trophy for first place in the chili cook-off to Sheilah Cline and Cyndy Ridgeway of the Carter Hope Center Friday on the Dalton Green. Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen
Wally and Vivian Campbell get some chili from Jeanne Barnes at the Women's Outreach booth Friday. Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen

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September 29, 2012

Organizers say annual chili cook-off raises awareness

Anonymous rachelbrown@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Sat Sep 29, 2012, 09:05 AM EDT

Hundreds of people came out to the Dalton Green by the courthouse Friday afternoon to eat free chili, celebrate the community’s substance abuse recovery programs and hear former Atlanta Braves outfielder Otis Nixon speak about addiction.

They got to do two out of three.

For unknown reasons, Nixon did not show up to the event. State Rep. Jay Neal, R-LaFayette, whose redrawn district will include parts of Whitfield County if he is re-elected in November (no Democrat qualified), said he had asked Nixon to be at the fifth annual Chili Cook-Off sponsored by the Conasauga Drug Court and several substance abuse recovery programs, but he was unable to contact him when he didn’t show up.

Neal, who is director of the Penfield Christian Home in LaFayette, said he used to believe strongly in cracking down on drug abusers by sentencing them to prison time. Then he was asked during a campaign several years ago to serve on the board of directors for a recovery program. Some of the men in the program began attending church services at a congregation where he was pastor, he said.

“What I saw in their lives was 180 degrees from what (I had always believed),” Neal said. “I saw these guys broken from the way they had let their families down.”

Now, he said he believes more strongly in helping people address their addictions rather than only sentencing them to jail time, something the Conasauga Drug Court does for certain kinds of offenders. The two-year program accepts people who have committed felony drug offenses and are ordered by a judge to enroll. In the Dalton area, there are multiple programs for people with addictions.

Brian Croft of Providence Ministries, a Dalton homeless shelter that offers substance abuse recovery programs, was an addict once himself before finally kicking the habit. On Friday, Croft headed up the cook-off and spoke to the crowds about the importance of the community addressing addiction. Dalton, he said, has done a good job of that. Among the partners at the chili cook-off were Alcoholics Anonymous, Carter Hope Center, Celebrate Recovery OBC, the drug court, CDC Alumni, Georgia Hope, Helping the Hurting, Innervention, Narcotics Anonymous, Northwest Day Reporting Center, Penfield Christian Homes North, Providence Rescue Ministries, Whitfield Intensive Outpatient and Women’s Outreach of Rome.

“If somebody doesn’t want help in this town, they just don’t want help if they can’t find it,” Croft said.

Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood said September is National Recovery Month.

Whitfield County resident Demetrius Love said he is battling a recovery of his own after being in and out of jail on drug charges since at least the 1980s. Love said he’s been going to the Day Reporting Center since Sept. 4. Since then, he said he’s learned and thought more about the consequences of addiction, such as the lost time, money and memories with your loved ones.

“It’s taught me a lot that I didn’t know or realize before I entered the program,” he said.

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Organizers say annual chili cook-off raises awareness

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