Patty Ballard first drank when she was 14 years old and kept drinking -- and using crack cocaine -- until she was 34.

"I always knew I was an alcoholic," Ballard said, "but the crack cocaine was scaring me."

That fear prompted Ballard to enter a Freeport, Ill., treatment center 20 years ago.

"When I entered recovery, I was drinking a quart of booze a day and smoking crack," she said.

Now 54, Ballard remains sober, works as an addiction counselor at Dubuque's Substance Abuse Services Center and will represent Iowa this weekend at a New York City rally featuring people in recovery from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

A&E Network worked in partnership with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Faces and Voices of Recovery, The Partnership, the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors and the 2009 Recovery Month Planning Partners to conduct an extensive, four-month nationwide search for delegates.

To qualify, candidates had to be in recovery for at least 10 years and active in the promotion of addiction

Advertisement

awareness in their community.

"It's a great honor for Patty to have been selected," said Diane Thomas, the center's executive director. "Patty is the perfect person to represent Iowa."

Last year's inaugural rally drew more than 5,000 people. Organizers expect to double that figure this year.

"The whole idea is to take away the stigma from addiction and treatment," Ballard said.

Ballard relishes the opportunity to promote recovery.

"You can recover and it is life-changing," she said. "I had given up custody of my kids for five years. Six months into recovery, they came back to me, and now I have a wonderful relationship with my family. Not just that, but I went to college. I'm a taxpayer. I'm a responsible citizen. I entered recovery in November 1989, and I have not relapsed in all that time.

"Now, I am sober for as long as I drank," Ballard said. "That's a cool, cool thing."

As many as 22 million Americans suffer from alcohol or drug abuse, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.