Stepping Stone unveiled the newest additions to its Tile Wall during a ceremony at its residential treatment facility on Oct. 7.

The Tile Wall is a place where people and organizations related to addiction and recovery are recognized and remembered, and is located in the breezeway of its residential treatment facility at 3767 Central Ave.

“It’s a place for both dynamic congregation and quiet contemplation,” Stepping Stone board president Gil Eastham said. “The inscriptions on the tiles tell of life’s triumphs and sometimes of life’s agonies. The tiles also recognize our many supporters here at Stepping Stone.”

Theresa Hunter dedicated a tile to her son Kenneth Micks, who passed away in December 2005.

“In May of ’04, Kenneth decided he was going to be sane and sober,” she said. “I asked him one day, ‘What made you decide to do this?’ and he said, ‘Well, Mom, I got tired of being cold and hungry.’ Stepping Stone was one of the places that helped him become warm, well-fed and gave him the structure he needed to turn his life around.

“I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to place a tile, because when someone dies the biggest fear is that they’ll be forgotten, and you’ve given all of us the opportunity for them to be remembered.”

Gerry Moreno said he was a “chronic relapser” and thanked Stepping Stone for allowing him to come back into treatment several times during the last 20 years. He dedicated a tile to his first sponsor, Dave Conlin, who died of cancer two years ago.

“He had close to 20 years of being clean,” Moreno said of Conlin. “I’ve never seen a person who had such a strong spiritual background as Dave, and he truly is a person that I admire today … he’s with me today and I love him very much. I am proud to put him on the board.”

Stepping Stone is only one of three nonprofit residential alcohol and drug recovery facilities in the state specifically targeting the GLBT community. The agency operates a 28-bed, long-term residential recovery facility and a day recovery program, and also offers sober living opportunities, homeless outreach, referrals, education, prevention and social support programs. Stepping Stone serves more than 2,000 clients annually.

Board vice president Kurt Carlson said that when he was in treatment 13 years ago, he was moved by a similar wall at a different treatment facility.

“I would spend a lot of time contemplating the names, the commemorative sayings and the significance of a wall like that because I needed hope on a daily basis – and I needed to be inspired to get through this horrible challenge of addiction that had me in its throes,” he said.

Carlson said former Stepping Stone executive director Cheryl Houk and several board members were instrumental in raising the capital needed to lead Stepping Stone in the construction of its 28-bed facility in 2000, replacing the four rundown residential cottages that had previously housed residents.

“The facility has grown and we’ve been able to expand within our walls here, but unfortunately we need to continue to expand, and we’ll continue to capitalize,” Carlson said. “We’ll continue to keep working at more solutions to provide more beds to more individuals. Right now, though, if you look around, it’s a very peaceful and beautiful facility for people to recover and live.”

City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez, who also serves as co-chair of Stepping Stone’s newly formed Community and Professional Advisory Group, recalled how much Stepping Stone has changed since the 1970s.

“It was a little house. I never forgot it had a four-burner stove. Can you imagine that?” he said of Stepping Stone’s former residential facility. “The dedication and the involvement of the community and people dedicated to this cause was just as strong, just as compassionate and just as committed as this current board and staff is.”

Murray-Ramirez said the new board members are “taking Stepping Stone to the next level” during a difficult time when the federal government is making cuts to social service programs.

Eastham said the board of directors has been going through a significant number of changes in the last 12 months that have given the board new inspiration and energy. He said six new board members have been elected, and recognized its newest member, Sandy Johnson.