The Mental Health and Recovery Services Board celebrated its 50th anniversary.

The board held its monthly meeting on Thursday night but before the members jumped into the monthly agenda, a few people were honored. Three retired employees of the Mental Health and Recovery Services who were instrumental in the success of the organization were invited to the celebration to speak about their time serving the community.

Rod Hollingsworth, the former director from 1993 to 2013, said “everything” has changed since he started working for the recovery services. The main change that has occurred over the many years he was involved in the organization came in 1988 when the Department of Health deinstitutionalized in an effort to reduce the number of people in state hospitalization systems.

“The idea was to keep people in the community, so if they were sick you didn’t take them completely out of the community,” he said. “People still use hospitals and state hospitals but they don’t stay for years like they did before.”

Hollingsworth is a native of Zanesville and moved back to the community after a stint in Cleveland. He said that he planned on staying in town for a couple years and leaving again, but the organization kept him in Zanesville far longer than he was anticipating.

“I found that helping people is what I wanted to do and that’s why I stayed for as long as I did,” Hollingsworth said.

The board also honored a special guest with a certificate for outstanding performance during its celebration. Rylee Butler, a rising junior at Maysville High School, planned and organized the first You Are Not Alone; Suicide Prevention 5K walk that occurred on May 6 to raise awareness about mental health and suicide prevention.

“I had suffered from mental health issues growing up and I knew a lot of my friends who had dealt with mental health issues,” Butler, who plans to pursue biomedical engineering after high school, said. “During the planning of the walk, there came a lot of suicides across the county and then I kind of realized how important it was for, not only myself but for the community … and how important it was to bring the community together after those suicides.”

Butler, 16, said she expected about 100 people to show up and raise around $300 for the Muskingum County Suicide Prevention Coalition. Much to her surprise, there was between 500 and 600 people at the event and she raised $5,187.50 to donate to the coalition. She has been honored and touched by all of the support and kind words she’s received from the community.