Annabelle Metell, a senior at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, decided to choose a capstone project that could make a meaningful impact on her community: She organized a community walk to raise addiction awareness.
Metell has had experience with her own family members who have struggled with addiction. She observed that the discussion around the topic often came with overwhelming feelings of shame, resentment, and isolation, not only for the user, but also for their families and friends.
“I felt a lot of guilt,” she said. “But talking to friends and other people in the community, I saw they are in the same boat.”
After she opened up to her friends about the family member in her life who struggled with addiction, she felt a weight lifted. She was inspired to tap into the same feelings of acceptance for her broader community.
The capstone program is an option for juniors and seniors at MVRHS, and is a project of each individual student’s choosing, with school administrator approval. The qualifications are broad — there’s a graded final project, and students are encouraged to be imaginative with the subject matter and results.
Metell saw an opportunity to create something positive out of a painful experience. She focused on a cause she felt passionately about, started reaching out to people in her community who could speak on the topic, and organized the walk. In her words, “We are walking toward healing.”
And on Saturday morning, bright and early, more than 80 community members chose to participate in the walk, aptly named Break the Silence. Metell was overwhelmed by the support. “It’s a much bigger turnout than expected,” she said.
Many showed up in their pajamas and running sneakers to the 9 am, two-mile walk that wound through the fall foliage on Sanderson Avenue, around the roundabout, and back to the bright purple high school doors.
The only essentials needed for the morning were comfortable clothes, an extra jacket, and, for many, tissues — there was a clear emotional heaviness and release in the group who showed up for the walk.
The morning started with a few speeches in the MVRHS library. Metell introduced the event, and discussed her own experience growing up with addiction in her family. She talked about the detrimental effects of an addict’s behavior on those they love, but also the compassion that can be extended in those moments. She focused on the healing that can be found if one is willing to take the next step, symbolized aptly in the walk she had worked to orchestrate.
A few adult members of the Island community shared their experiences with addiction as well. The panel of speakers, many of them members of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous on the Island, were no strangers to emotional honesty and profound life stories. The truth of sobriety, for many of those who spoke on Saturday, was that life lessons worth sharing don’t come easily; they are earned through experience.
Jack, whose last name is omitted for anonymity, spoke about his experience with addiction, and his recovery through AA. “Drinking and drugs are symptoms of things that we all need to deal with … addicts just chose an unhealthy path to deal with it,” he said. A resonating sentiment among the speakers of the day was that awareness of the world is often a new and raw lens to become accustomed to, after years of choosing to numb the pain.
Jack spoke earnestly about his past history of alcohol abuse, and his new foothold in recovery. But it wasn’t an easy process. “It takes time,” he said. “You have it inside of you, but sometimes it’s really hard to find … [But] there are resources out there, you just have to take the first step of asking for help.”
Metell highlighted a few resources as part of the awareness walk. The Red House, Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous, Al-Anon, and Community Services are a few places to start, if you or someone you love is struggling with addiction.
Those who grew up on the Island know the foundations of safety, creativity, and expression are laid here. But there is also a pressure and expectation to engage in substance abuse. As Jack said in his speech on Saturday, “bringing this to light is really important. There are a lot of people on-Island struggling.”
Two friends of Metell, high schoolers Isabella Levy and Vivian Baxter, are spearheading another addiction awareness event, set for Dec. 12. It will be held in the MVRHS library from 11:35 am to 12:35 pm. While Saturday’s event was about raising awareness and discussing the emotional weight of addiction, the December event will be geared toward high school students and their personal experiences with addiction.
Kevin McGrath, a teacher at MVRHS, is assigned to help with capstone projects, and assisted Metell in the Break the Silence walk. According to McGrath, the “expectation and hope is that the projects have a lasting impact outside of the classroom. Annabelle’s is a great example of a capstone that is done for the right reasons.”
