SkiP HappEns Podcast
Skip Clark is a dynamic and captivating podcast host and radio personality who has left an indelible mark on the world of broadcasting. With a voice that can command attention and a personality that oozes charm, Skip has become a beloved figure in the world of entertainment. His passion for storytelling and his ability to connect with his audience shine through in every episode of his podcast and every moment on the airwaves.
Skip’s journey in radio began decades ago, and he has since evolved into a seasoned professional who effortlessly navigates the waves of the media industry. His deep knowledge of music, pop culture, and current events keeps his listeners engaged and coming back for more. Skip Clark's enthusiasm and authenticity make him a trusted voice in the world of podcasting and radio. His dedication to his craft and his commitment to providing quality content continue to make him a standout in the world of broadcasting.
SkiP HappEns Podcast
From Tragedy to Transformation: A Father's Journey
Hello everybody and welcome to the Inner Harbor cast, part of the Community Connection, all part of Inner Harbor Media. My name is Skip Clark. Of course I'm on air with the Wolf, but pulling these podcasts together and having some great, great guests, for example today, I'm loving this. I love the whole story behind this. You may have seen it in the news recently, you may have heard it on the news recently, but Henry Brigham is with me. Henry is the founder of Devin's Rec Room. Henry, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:It's good to see you, my friend. Can you let's get right into it? I got my list of questions. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind starting Devin's Rec Room and what motivated you to create a space specifically focused on recovery and fitness?
Speaker 2:Right. So I've been in recovery myself 32 years now. Unfortunately, back in 2001, my son, devin, passed away from a heroin overdose and he was a little less than a month after his 18th birthday, oh my God. So I always knew since then that we were going to do something in this space and just didn't know what it was. And so, as I say, it's on God's time, not mine. So I started working out. She's 10 years ago, 12 years ago now, and I realized how much work physical fitness really helped me with my recovery. Even though I'd been in recovery 20 years by then, I still realized it really really helped me with my mindset in my daily living, not only just regular health aspect but, like I said, the mental part of it.
Speaker 2:And so shortly after that we learned of a place in Rochester called Recovery Fitness, and they're modeled after a national organization called the Phoenix, and my wife and I, barbara, went on out. We visited them, spent a day with them. They were going to come into town. They decided not to branch out into Syracuse, and since then three other organizations in upstate New York one in Albany, one in Adirondacks and one down in Southern Tier all opened up with the same type of model, if you will, a sober, active recovery. And so five years ago we started doing hikes, decided to bring the concept to Syracuse and started doing hikes. It grew people, um, uh, were liking it. But they were all saying, you know, we really want uh something indoors. You know I I mean the winners have been known not to be the best in central.
Speaker 1:New York.
Speaker 2:So we started looking for a spot and, uh, it took us a few years. Unfortunately, we did run across. Uh, there's a lot of stigma about recovery and people who used to use drugs and alcohol and things like that. Unfortunately, the stigma is still out there enough to we applied for a grant. They were good enough to give us a grant which allowed us to get a space over on Butternut Street and we're going to have our grand opening this month on the 27th it's a Thursday from 10 to 1, we'll have our grand opening, and the following Saturday, the 29th, we'll be in open house. Anybody can come on in just check it on out, but we're free to people in recovery.
Speaker 1:So you talk about? You've been through a lot of this. Can we talk about you for just a moment?
Speaker 2:Sure Can we take it back. I'm not good at that, but I'll try. No, no, no but.
Speaker 1:I mean you went through recovery. Yes, You've done that. Was it drugs? Was it alcohol?
Speaker 2:With me it was both. It was alcohol, my drug of choice at the time, my major drug of choice was cocaine. And so I came home one day and my wife by my second marriage Devin was by my first marriage, my second marriage walked out the door with my daughter and said I may or may not be back. You need to decide what you're going to do. And I did not want to lose a second family, and so I started going to AA meetings, and this time it stuck.
Speaker 1:Good for you and here you are.
Speaker 2:Thank you, here I am.
Speaker 1:Now, so the gym obviously is named after Devin, yes, and how has his memory influenced your work and the mission of the facility? You said it's about a rehab and all that heroin addiction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ours says we're not treatment at all. So we're for people with at least 48 hours of continuous sobriety, so it's for people that are in consider themselves in recovery. And Devin, he was a football player, he was a lacrosse player, he was a musician, percussionist. He was just full of life and unfortunately he made some wrong decisions for some right reasons, like kids that age do yeah, and he got mixed up with some older people, uh, that he shouldn't have been mixed up with, but uh and uh.
Speaker 2:You know, it happens, unfortunately, to the best people.
Speaker 1:And we have the best people like yourself. That's keeping his, you know, keeping it all alive and helping others. Um, now to get into the gym, to belong to the gym. I was reading that you have a 48 hour sobriety requirement. Can?
Speaker 2:you tell?
Speaker 1:me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's modeled like I said. We're modeled after those four other agencies and they ask for the same requirement it's 48 hours of continuous sobriety. And people ask me how of continuous sobriety? And, um, people ask me how, uh, you know, how do you, how are you sure, how do you know that people have done that? And uh, and I make them pinky swear. So you know, that's about it. That's about it. You have to take people at their word and it becomes obvious, you know, if they're not, and uh, but we're, uh, we're there for people that having that as the only requirement is we're trying to remove all of the barriers for people to get healthy. We actually, um, our programs are, uh, modeled around the eight dimensions of wellness and uh, so we, uh, you know, uh, we're going to program around that it's not just physical fitness, it's emotional, it's mental, it's financial, all of that. And so when we get up, when we get going, you know we'll be looking for volunteers to come on in and have different seminars and stuff for people.
Speaker 1:So all that plays a role. You mentioned about the different things, but they're all connected.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Because if you don't work out, if you don't walk, you don't get any sort of fitness. I mean, you're going to be down in the dumps. That's the way I look at it and that's just going to lead to other other issues. But working out puts you in a good mindset. It makes you think, yeah, I feel good, this is. You know, you're pretty fit.
Speaker 2:Not not as fit as I I'd like to be. This has taken a lot of my time, but I'm hoping, now that we're getting open, I'm going to be back to it a little bit more. But yeah, I mean, uh, you, uh, if people think about it, they go into a gym, um, the heaviest door in the in the gyms are the heaviest weight in the gyms and the gyms are the heaviest weight in the gyms the front door. So you know once you get in, there, that's all the battle, almost.
Speaker 1:you know, I never thought of it that way.
Speaker 2:So true, yeah. And when you leave, everybody's got a smile on their face. You know the fitness works on the same neuroreceptors and endorphins and everything as addiction does, and it's just a lot better for you.
Speaker 1:I see that us and, uh, it's just a lot better for you. I see that, um, when it comes to Devin, did you know he was going down a wrong path, or did it come across, as a parent, that it was too late by the time you found out, or how was that? So maybe there's another parent, that's?
Speaker 2:listening or watching this yeah.
Speaker 1:What were the signs?
Speaker 2:How did you know that's a? That's a great question. So, um, know that's a, that's a great question. So, um, we, uh, devin uh, lived with his mom and, uh, he came to live with us and, um, he, he was a kid, you know it.
Speaker 2:I think it was 15 at the time and he was started smoking pot and uh, he, uh, you know, I recognized the signs because I had done it when I was growing up and so I remember I was kind of strict and he came upstairs one day from the cellar I wouldn't let him go to a party or something like that and he said you know, I hate living here because I can't get away with anything, because I was strict. And then he kind of smiled at me and gave me a hug and uh, uh, but yeah, I mean, I did uh, my, uh, my wife and I tried the, the tough love. We tried the love, love. We tried the understanding, we tried to talk, we tried the counselors, uh, we tried just about everything that we could and it still didn't work.
Speaker 2:He ended up back then you could emancipate yourself when you were 16 years old, and that's what he did. And he went to his girlfriend at the time, did not have a great home life, and we got a note on our door dad, I promise to stay off drugs and in school, but I have to go help my girlfriend. And so he declared himself uh emancipated and uh, that's that's what happened.
Speaker 1:He moved to uh geneva and tried to take her her it's a parent's worst nightmare, what you've been through, and you're not the only one right. I mean there's other parents too and obviously I don't know if that you have a network that you kind of all chat about this issue or you know, uh, I, I don't belong to a network like that, but yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It's the club that nobody wants to belong to absolutely.
Speaker 1:I can understand that absolutely. How was um I don't mean to reach deep into this, but I'm really curious? You get the phone call that devin is at the hospital or wherever because of the overdose. What's going through your mind? What I mean? Just you get there. I don't know if they called and told you that he had passed or if you were there when that happened. Talk to me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Well, if you don't mind too much detail, I'll uh be willing to share the story um it's uh we got.
Speaker 2:I got the call uh that uh, his uh initially his girlfriend had called me in january and said that uh, he had been trying heroin and uh so his birthday was is april 23rd and uh so we got in, uh, I called his mom and his stepdad and uh we all went to Geneva. We found him. We tried to talk him to get in the car. He wouldn't get in the car. He was a big kid. He was uh 17 then and uh six foot something and uh, he was, he was high that and uh couldn't get him in the car. Talked several times to him after that. The last time I talked to him was on his birthday. I said let me come get you no judgment, no, anything, we'll get you some help. He said, dad, I told you that I'm not doing that, I just tried it. I'm not that stupid. Of course I didn't believe him and I told him that. I said you know, I hope you're telling me the truth. My fear is you're not.
Speaker 2:We got the call three weeks after that and that he was in the hospital. The story is he was at his pusher's house. He went down. His pusher lived around the corner from the hospital in Geneva. He called several of my son's friends to come dump his body, but he wasn't dead. So one of his friends said no, we're going to come and we're going to take him to the hospital. You're literally right around the corner. So they put him in the car. They took him to the hospital. You're literally right around the corner. They put him in the car, they took him to the hospital. Someone went and got a wheelchair. They put him in a wheelchair and orderly came out of the doors. They all hopped in the car and ran. He fell flat on his face on the sidewalk in front of the hospital. They literally dumped him like a pile of garbage. Um and uh. He'd never resumed uh, uh. Consciousness after that. They took him to strong Memorial in Rochester.
Speaker 2:Uh yeah, and uh, the doctor, just doctor said there was nothing they could do. He had been without oxygen, uh, for so long. So that's what's so great about, um, so great about Narcan now is that if they had Narcan back in 2001, he probably would still be alive.
Speaker 1:He could be sitting here with us telling his story Right, absolutely Wow, henry. So, yeah, we had to take him off of life support in the hospital and I held his hand as he passed so yeah, wow you're a strong man, but now god has got you here doing what you're doing for a reason, and I'm sure devin is looking down on us. Can you tell me a little bit about your experience? How crucial is long-term support for people in recovery? What role do places like Devin's Rec Room play in that support system?
Speaker 2:You know, right now, most of the money in Albany the opiate settlement funds they have and we're blessed to be able to get some of that to open Devin's Rec Room but only 6% in 2023 went to people in recovery. Most of it went to prevention and treatment. Now, the way I look at it, there's prevention, there's treatment and recovery. So prevention and treatment are very needed. Don't get me wrong. There's awesome nonprofits in absolutely that do that and it's very, very needed, but it's only six percent. It occurred to us that you know, we we help them win I, the way I describe it is, we help them win the battle and get sober, but we don't help them win the war which is the rest of their lives, absolutely, absolutely, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:We were unloading the truck of equipment this reminds me of that this week and as we were on the street and butternut street, a person came downstairs that lived upstairs and she said now are you with that place down the street? And I said yeah, and she said oh, and she said I've tried quitting and I can't. I don't have any. She goes, I went to rehab and, but I don't have any family, I don't have any friends here. She says I have nobody and she just started crying and it's. It's amazing that that's that's what people need. They need the support.
Speaker 1:So I mean right there, that story of that woman coming down and've read online and stuff. It sounds like there's so many people behind you. You're getting the support that you need.
Speaker 2:We have been so blessed and I mean that with this community. Everyone we've talked to is 100% behind us and they're helping. We're always going to. Obviously, you know, getting open is one thing but staying open is something else. So we're going to. We've got a lot of things coming up for that, but we've been very blessed from vendors to communities, to other not-for-profits.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask you about that, that if you are working with others to maybe direct people your way that need this assistance, you know I'm sure you have Devin's Rec Room but with a hospital, once somebody's on the road to recovery say, now you know you need to go and check out Devin's Rec Room.
Speaker 2:That's our hope. Our hope is we're very collaborative. That person I spoke of earlier that we met on the street. We asked her to come on down because she has to take the first steps and we said come on down and we'll refer you out. And we're hoping that people refer their members back to us.
Speaker 1:Now, is there a way that the community can get involved even more? Can they make a donation? Can they come down and say hey, henry, I saw this on the podcast or I heard it online, I heard it on the radio. Is there a way that you can get like you want volunteers, you want people to come in, maybe work the desk. I don't know how that works.
Speaker 2:What are you looking for? Yes to all of the above.
Speaker 1:How's that?
Speaker 2:So they can call. Our number is 315-498-5111. And they can call us. But we have our signature walk. Never Walk Alone is going to be up at Onondaga Park I believe it's June 7th, Okay, and that is just a walk to show people in recovery their support and you bring whatever pet that you have. Because we call it Never Walk Alone? Because pets are very important to a lot of people in recovery.
Speaker 2:We don't care if it's a dog or cat. Last year we had a duck show up, which was awesome, and you know, what people don't talk enough about is how awesome recovery is. I wouldn't have my life right now if it wasn't for recovery. Recovery's fun, it's beautiful and, yeah, we'll take anybody and just call that number, ask for me.
Speaker 1:Every day when you walk through that door. What's that feeling? You open that door that weighs so much for others when you walk in. What do you feel?
Speaker 2:uh blessed, uh, honestly, I just uh, I have a strong faith, um, and uh, devin's pictures in the hallway right hanging right outside my, uh, my office and uh, you know, I just uh look on up, I give him a smile and pat the picture and say you know, it's another day, you're so strong.
Speaker 1:It's Henry Brigham who's the founder of Devin's Rec Room, which is up on Butternut you said Is there a website or somewhere they can go and check this out?
Speaker 2:now. Well, yes, I'm going to correct myself and you'll understand why the number is 498-1115, not 511, because our address is 511 Butternut Street. So I flip them. So I apologize and I'm sorry. What was the question?
Speaker 1:I was. Oh my God, you blew my mind. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I forgot what I asked.
Speaker 1:Producer Steve, what was the question?
Speaker 2:And see, but it was a good one. We know it was a good one. We know it was a good one.
Speaker 1:But you know, I did ask. You know how it is when you walk through that door, but you gave me a good answer to that. But you know you're very strong and to come in and tell your story and I kind of wonder if you don't mind me asking here. You've been very open and if you don't want to answer the question, that's fine. I totally respect that and I get it. But you, going back to what you went through in a period of time, do you think that's part of, maybe a slight part of the reason that Devin might have kind of wandered off because Dad was doing something?
Speaker 2:You know it could be. He also said I was a lot more fun when I was drinking and drugging. I believe that there is a hereditary piece to addiction. I believe he got our genes. I'm one of a long list of Brighams that have had problems with addictions long list of Brighams that have had problems with addictions.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 1:Henry I want to say thank you. Thank you for coming by today, thank you for chatting with us, thank you for opening up. It's got to be a very difficult thing to talk about, but you seem so strong and I think you know you're going. Yeah, devin, he's watching this whole thing right now the recording of this and he probably knows the answer to the question that I asked her what the question was. But anyways, I do want to say thank you so much for coming in, thank you for telling your story and you know we're going to be there for you. If we can assist in any of the events coming up, you need to reach out because we'll be there in a moment's notice.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, I will.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you this is something that everybody needs to hear. This is something that everybody needs to realize. They need to know it's there. They need to help. I mean, we look at the world the way it is today and so many people are just going in so many different directions and I think their mind is wandering a lot as well. A lot of evil is going on. Thank you for doing what you're doing. God bless you. My friend, thank you for being here on the Inner Harbor cast and the community involvement calendar Connection Dude. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Bye.
