Picture and Article Courtesy of The Clay City Times; Jeff Kerr, Editor
Prayer Walks held March 11 - Article published March 16, 2006
The weather outside was frightful and the timing probably couldn’t have been worse, but almost 100 people turned out for simultaneous prayer walks held at 2 p.m. Saturday in Stanton and Clay City sponsored by the Powell County Christians United Against Drugs (PCCUAD).
“We had about 50 people in Stanton and 35 in Clay City and as we walked through ‘The Bottoms’ in Clay City we had people come out of their houses and join us,” said Rev. Bill Boldt, pastor of Stanton Baptist Church and president of the Powell County Ministerial Association, which formed PCCUAD. “It was raining and the UK ball game was on but I was pleased with the turnout.”
Boldt said the reaction in Clay City was especially gratifying.
“It was pouring down rain but as we walked several people came out of their homes and waved at us,” he said. “Those people down there are hurting but they appreciate that we were down there and despite the weather, we sent a message that we weren’t backing down.”
Boldt said the reaction to the initial walks has inspired the PCCUAD.
“We’re talking right now about the possibility of doing this every month,” he said. “I think that would be great.”
Since the ministerial association called a town meeting in November to shed light on the local drug problem, Boldt said the response from the community has been overwhelming.
More than 900 people attended the first meeting and a followup meeting last month attracted around 300 people. At the first meeting more than 30 local pastors attended in a show of solidarity with the cause.
Six task forces — each dealing with an explicit facet of the drug problem — have been formed and are hard at work, Boldt said. The task forces include around a dozen lay people and two or three pastors each.
The group has started a Web site, installed a drug help line and a drug tip line and has obtained a $65,000 grant to help in rehabilitating prisoners at the Powell County Detention Center.
The grant includes counseling on money management, anger management and parenting. Boldt said the group hopes to target 10 prisoners for six months each. The prisoners in the program will be held in private cells and counseled for six months each. The aim, he said, is to keep them out of jail once they are released.
“Ted (Powell County Jailer Ted Lacy) told me we have an 80 percent recidivism rate,” Boldt said. “That means eight out of every 10 prisoners in the jail who are released will end up back in jail. We want to break that cycle.”
PCCUAD is also instituting a “Court Watch” program in which volunteers will attend sessions in court and track the progress of drug cases.
“We give them (the volunteers) training and we teach them what they need to keep their eye on and what they need to be monitoring,” Boldt said. “We want to know the judges and the attorneys that the public eye is on them.”
The group is holding a training session this Saturday, March 18, at Stanton Baptist Church for people who have volunteered to become counselors for drug addicts and parents of drug addicts.
“We’ll be training them for seven hours Saturday and then we’ll do seven weeks of followup training,” Boldt said.
Boldt said there will be between 30 to 40 people at this Saturday’s training session.
But that’s not enough.
“We would always welcome more counselors,” he said. “The problem is bigger than this.”
Thank you for visiting this website page at http://www.pcm-a.org
This page was last updated on March 24, 2006. For feedback regarding this website feel free to send comments to the website manager.
Return to PCCUAD Homepage