PENN TWP — About 200 people gathered Wednesday to celebrate addiction recovery.

For 14 years now, community members and leaders of recovery groups in Butler County have joined together for a meal to celebrate both recovery at large and one of the county’s key resources for struggling addicts: the Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center.

Attendees at the luncheon usually are treated to speeches from recovering addicts, including people who recently went through Gaiser center programs. This year’s event at the Butler Country Club was no exception.

Looking around the room, Spencer Geibel opened up with an ironic observation. He grew up a member of the very country club where the event was held. That changed at the height of his own addiction.

“This club sent me a life expulsion letter,” Geibel said.

Geibel described his early adulthood as a derailing train that he couldn’t stop. For many years he couldn’t find a way out of addiction, he said, and he couldn’t pull the brakes on the chaos filling his life.

He hated the idea of long-term recovery programs, he said. But 72 days with the Gaiser Center worked. He now owns and operates a funeral home service in Butler.

“I never knew I could get to where I am today,” Geibel said. “I went to that program and I built a foundation.”

This is an excerpt of an article that will appear in Thursday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read more about the event