AIIA Certified Sober Coach Training

For Immediate Release: Ready to Turn the Mess of Addiction Into the Message of Sobriety?

Want to start a chapter of Team Addict II Athlete in your community using the AIIA Playbook?

Want to Coach your own clients as they move from Addict to Athlete?

Now is the time to become a Certified Addict II Athlete Sober Coach.

Email: Marissa@AddictToAthlete.org to get more information on this life-changing training.

The Certified Sober Coach program will be ongoing as we have enough individuals to fill it.

RAISING FUNDS TO HELP MORE INDIVIDUALS ERASE ADDICTION THIS GIVINGTUESDAY

UTAH COUNTY, UTAH, UNITED STATES, November 18, 2019 /EINPresswire.com/ -- This GivingTuesday, Addict II Athlete, a Utah-based nonprofit organization that helps individuals erase addiction through health, recreation, service, relationships and team unity, is raising funds to help more individuals & families who are struggling with addiction.

According to AddictionCenter.com, almost 21 million Americans have at least one addiction, yet only 10% of them receive treatment. By providing addiction recovery services over the last 8 years, Addict II Athlete staff understands that one of the barriers to receiving treatment is the cost. That’s why they are not only raising funds to help more individuals and families in Utah access their life-changing programs but to expand the free content they produce via podcasts and YouTube videos to support the individuals and families who have no-to-little resources to help them overcome addiction. Read more HERE

New program brings community members, recovering addicts together to overcome drug addiction

James Johnson is very open and honest about his past. He’ll tell you about the day he missed his daughter’s birth because he had been strung out on methamphetamine. He’ll tell you about the night he committed a home invasion to steal drugs and money from drug dealers, which lead to his arrest and ultimately a 7 year prison sentence at the Utah State Penitentiary. He’ll also tell you how his release from prison in January 2019 felt more like a continued sentence than freedom.

“I still felt like I was in prison. I was really struggling, I was alone. I just felt like [home] was a nicer prison,” Johnson said. Committed to leave the drug life behind, Johnson starting running and working out, posting videos on social media to reach out to others because he knew he needed that support too. That’s when Blu Robinson reached out to him. Read entire article

On the Radio

Coach Johnson and Athlete Goddard were live on air yesterday as they were interviewed on channel 104.5 FM on Basin Now Radio in the Community Outreach Programming. They did great sharing about what the program and the team have done for them as well as the growth for the new Uintah Basin Chapter.

Listen HERE

Team AIIA Is Growing

We are excited to announce a new chapter of Addict to Athlete being launched in Vernal, Utah. This will be our first chapter in the Uintah Basin. AIIA will have a kick-off presentation on August 24th, 2019 where we will introduce the community, the judicial and law-enforcement organizations to the team. Soon after this presentation locations for the meeting, times and dates will be scheduled so that anyone who wishes to participate will be able. 

Coach Blu said, “It’s always exciting to have another chapter of Addict II Athlete open. It boggles my mind how strong these community resources can become. The team support and team unity becomes like a second family too many people in recovery and to so many others who have a loved one struggling with addiction”. 

Everyone is welcome. Whether you are struggling with an addiction, in a therapeutic treatment program or if you are the parent friend or loved one of an individual struggling with addiction of any kind, you are more than welcome to attend our meetings. Find out more about the weekly meetings or by contacting Coach James Johnson 435-724-7733

Overdose Awareness

On August 31st, 2018 Team Addict II Athlete will again participate in the 2019 Overdose Awareness Day. The team will participate in a relay style running event set to the milage that reflects the current overdose rate in the state Utah. “We have developed a new running course and will carry a message to the the state capital that more needs to be done to fight this problem” Coach Jed Jensen explained to the Utah County Chapter of Addict II Athlete.

Anyone wanting to join the AIIA on this run can find the map and relay times to run with the athletes or cheer them during this event. We also welcome you to the state capital where you can be a part of the overdose awareness presentation on Aug. 31st starting at 6pm.
Learn more about Overdose Awareness Utah

Two Families Find Healing From Addiction Through Marathon Racing

Russell Hutchings, Don Hutchings, and Emma Robison

July 27th, 2018 SALT LAKE CITY – 41-year-old Don Hutchings and seven-year-old Emma Robison have one thing in common. They have both overcome a drug addiction, but their journeys could not be more different.

Emma only weighed 2 pounds 2 ounces when she was born. Freyja Robison and her husband adopted Emma at birth.

Her birth mother was addicted to opioids — so addicted that even becoming pregnant couldn’t stop her from using them.

Emma was exposed to the drugs in utero, significantly altering her development.

“She is non-verbal, she is legally deaf, and she is legally blind,” Freyja Robison described. “She loves to play with sensory toys that light up and play music. Music is her language.”

Three weeks after birth, Emma’s system was finally drug free. Around the same time, Hutchings was also reaching his own sobriety.

“I’ve struggled with a lifetime of addiction. It started at age 12 sneaking beers out of my grandparents’ fridges,” Hutchings explained.

After his father went to prison, Hutchings fell into a deep depression and started to self-medicated with methamphetamines.

“If I didn’t have my substance, I laid in bed and shook and slept until I got my phone call,” Hutchings described.

He was pouring $350 into the addiction daily. Sitting in jail time after time finally triggered a change.

One day Hutchings was sitting in jail with a bunch of 18-year-olds comparing charges and he thought, “Is this what my life has come to?”

Hutchings’ and Emma’s lives crossed paths when he volunteered with a group called Addict to Athlete. It’s a program designed to help people battling addiction by training for and racing in marathons.

Hutchings initially went just to meet his probation requirements.

“I went purely out of greed. I wanted to sign off community services hours,” he admitted.

But it didn’t take much to change his heart.

“There was an energy about the team. You could just feel it!” he said.

Hutchings soon fell in love with little Emma. They became racing partners in mainstream marathons. Hutchings pushes Emma in a specially designed racing stroller during each race.

“When Emma sees it she just lights up… and giggles and bounces and squeals. It is the best thing for her!” Freyja Robison said.

The program’s director Coach Blu Robinson said running marathons is a lot like the journey of recovery.

“It sucks, it’s hard, but when you’re done feel good,” he said.

As an addiction counselor, he found running alongside his athletes to be the most effective form of therapy.

He said, “They’d tell me more outside on a training run than they even did in my office.”

Robinson said running offered a new meaning for their lives.

“To allow them to erase the addiction and replace it with things of greater value,” he explained.

Running together has brought healing to two families each suffering from the bonds of addiction.

Hutchings’ wife, Brooke Hutchings, lived through the highs and lows of his addiction and recovery.

“It’s not just the addict that suffers. It’s the family too,” she said. “I never thought we’d make it!”

Brooke Hutchings also volunteers with the team. She said the program has saved their family.

“We have a whole community that surrounds us and we all recover with him together,” she described.

Hutchings said the relationships he has developed on the Addict to Athlete team helped fill a void he experienced while he was addicted.

“It gives me my connection with people who are like minded. People who are on the same journey,” he said.

Hutchings’ 11-year-old son, Russell Hutchings, cherishes the time he is able to spend with his dad today.

“Why I run is now I can spend time with him because back then I couldn’t,” he explained.

Freyja Robison said becoming friends with Hutchings and his family has helped understand how hard it was for Emma’s birth mother to quit. Freyja Robison said she forgives her.

“I didn’t understand that until I got to know people who have really been through the battle and come out the other side,” she described.

Hutchings’ service enables Emma to move in ways she otherwise could not.

“Racing gives her the ability to be free!” she said.

The bond Emma and Hutchings share is extremely special and unique.

“Even though she has trouble seeing and hearing, she knows when I’m there. She can feel me,” Hutchings said.

Frejya Robison believes Hutchings presence comes from a higher power—“an angel in human form!” she said.

In October, the Addict to Athlete team is flying to Washington D.C. to support Hutchings and Emma who are running in the Marine Corps Marathon.

The organization has more than 2,000 athletes in Utah and welcomes anyone touched by addiction.
Watch Story HERE

Addicts turned athletes rally to help drug-addicted girl

“A few years ago, a friend whose son was wheelchair-bound told her about a group of runners who made it possible for special-needs children to participate in races by pushing them in strollers or wheelchairs. That group was Addict II Athlete, and it turned out to be just the kind of extended family the Robisons needed.”

July 15, 2017 By Amy Donaldson

SALT LAKE CITY — Emma Robison’s story illustrates just how unfair life can be.

But thanks to the generosity of others, hers is also the story of how simple acts of kindness can transform even the most dire situations.

The petite 6-year-old was born addicted to drugs she never had a choice in taking. The methamphetamines robbed her of physical, mental and emotional abilities that most of us take for granted.

“When we first saw the girls, they were 3 months old, and Leah weighed eight pounds,” said their mother, Freyja Robison. “Emma weighed four pounds eight ounces.”

Freyja and her husband, Shad, got a phone call about the twins when their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was 2½. All three girls had the same biological mother, and despite the significant challenges that awaited them, the Robisons fell madly in love with those tiny twins.

“Leah is very mobile,” Freyja said. “She has about 80 percent of normal function.”

Emma wasn’t as lucky.

“Emma has struggled with feeding and all kinds of sensory issues her whole life,” Freyja said. “She hated to be touched.”

She hated being touched, hugged and kissed.

“But she loved being swaddled,” Freyja said. “She loved deep sensory. That’s how we survived. We could swaddle her, and there was so much touch everywhere, she would eat.”

A few years ago, a friend whose son was wheelchair-bound told her about a group of runners who made it possible for special-needs children to participate in races by pushing them in strollers or wheelchairs. That group was Addict II Athlete, and it turned out to be just the kind of extended family the Robisons needed.

“They love our kids,” she said. “They love everything about our kids. We use them as our legs and our bodies and our hearts and souls to push our kids through races.”

While Freyja and Shad recently ran their first half marathon, she claims she’s not a runner. She does a few 5Ks with Emma, but she leaves the lengthy mileage to the runners who found their own support and salvation through a group that uses exercise as a tool to battle addiction.

It isn’t just that the AIIA athletes are willing to push Emma, just as they pushed her older sister, Elizabeth, until she passed away 18 months ago. It’s that they understand the challenges her children face in ways that most people cannot.

“As horrible as it sounds, our kids are addicts,” Freyja said. “I don’t understand everything they go through, but when they do and when they see our kids, they high-five them, they love them.”

She is also looking to the group to help her explain to Leah just how precarious sobriety can be. Freyja knows that as Leah gets older, she’ll be exposed to addictive substances.

“If she ever gets introduced to anything addictive, she’ll be hooked in a heartbeat,” she said. “We want her to have that support, and I know this group will be there for her.” The runners in the group understand what it’s like to live with addiction. They know what can be lost in the struggle, and just how dark certain situations can seem.

But they also know what it’s like to triumph over addiction. In fact, the beauty of AIIA is that it allows members to take responsibility for their recoveries, including the decisions that led to their addiction, while also allowing them to break free from the stigma.

Addiction doesn’t define them, and with the help of the group, it also doesn’t limit them. They become, through their accomplishments as individuals and as a group, so much more than "addicts."

“We can do hard things, and we’ve been through a lot,” said Lisa Hancock, the Salt Lake team captain for Addict II Athlete, which meets every Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Salt Lake Community College’s Lifetime Fitness Center. “It makes us stronger to go through what we have and come out on the other side.”

She said they speak openly about addiction because they want those still struggling to know there is always hope.

“People think something like meth is too hard to get off,” she said. “They think it isn’t possible. How can they know it’s possible if they don’t see it?” Hancock will celebrate six years of sobriety from meth and alcohol in September, and she said sharing not only reduces stigma, it also reveals how different, successful and productive people can be if they deal with their addictions.

“I’m not going to be silent,” she said. “People need to know there is hope.”

Which is the 102-mile Break the Cycle relay Hancock organized this weekend, which serves multiple purposes. Yes, they hope to raise the $3,800 they need to buy Emma a new racing wheelchair. (Donations are still being accepted at addicttoathlete.org/donate)

But they also hope to let those struggling, and their families, know that the chains of addiction can always be broken. And that feat is easier to accomplish with help.

The Robisons have been the beneficiaries of that help, especially Elizabeth and Emma.

“We call them our loaned legs,” Freyja said. “But really, they’re a loaned heart, soul, body. They donate and leave so much on the trail with our kids. It’s hard to put into words what they do for our kids.”

That’s because so much of what her family receives from their AIIA friends is more easily felt than described.

“The light that is in their eyes when they’re racing,” Freyja said. “The light that’s in their eyes when they just see these people.” They each need and receive something unique from their friendship with Addict II Athlete’s members, whether they run, volunteer or cheer. But it is especially critical for little Emma.

“Leah will go and run and ride her bike,” Freyja said. “Emma is kind of trapped. When she gets in the racing chair, she’s totally free. She laughs and giggles and has the most amazing time when she’s racing. I see her smile more in a racing chair than any other time in her life. … This group loves her for who she is. They don’t require anything of her whatsoever. They just love to run with her.”

Hancock chokes back emotion as she talks about how she pushed Emma’s older sister Elizabeth in one of her first races after joining Addict II Athlete two years ago. Pushing a racing chair is physically challenging but emotionally rewarding.

“It’s very emotional,” she said. “Knowing the emotion the child is going through while you’re pushing, it’s just an amazing feeling. It gives you the adrenaline to continue.”

And that’s really what this weekend was about.

Too many people understand how cruel and unfair life can be. And what this group of addicts turned athletes showed us this weekend is that it isn’t hard to make sure they also know how a little love, friendship and support can transform tragedy into triumph.
Article HERE