Tonia Mason, left, and Kathie Williams stand in Arbe’s Carpet Center in Rumford, where they plan to open The Larry Labonte Recovery Center later this year. Rumford Falls Times photo by Bruce Farrin

RUMFORD — With support from the community, a resource center for people dealing with addiction, mental illness and other challenges is planned for part of Arbe’s Carpet Center at 412 Waldo St. this year.

Store owner Lonnie Labonte and his mother, manager Kathie Williams, are leading the effort for The Larry Labonte Recovery Center.

Labonte said it is a tribute to his father, former Arbe’s owner Larry Labonte, who died in 2015.

“He struggled with addiction throughout his life,” Lonnie said. “I figured this would be a good way to turn his name around and have it be for the better, instead of what a lot of people remember him as.”

In addition, he said drug use had a lot to do with the loss of a couple of friends.

“I just knew that something had to change in the area and this was the best idea I could come up with,” Labonte said.

“We’re not going to be a treatment center,” Williams said. “We’re going to be more of a resource center. There’s a lot of resources around that people don’t know exist.

“We’ll be a visible place that people can come in and say, ‘I need some help with this.’ It’s not going to just be addiction and mental health. We’ll look at what your resources are. What your options are.”

Tonia Mason, one of the training recovery coaches, said she will act as “somebody’s cheerleader, help them find resources, provide them with tools of recovery.”

“Finding out the internal and external resources they already have, and what they need to work on, will give them an idea what they can work on themselves to get better,” Mason said.

“I have a few roles in the community and I am called everyday, several times, for people needing help. People don’t know where to go, don’t know where the resources are. This will fill that need.”

Labonte said the center will not give advice. Instead, he said, “we’ll be setting them up with counselors and resources they can use.”

The center will offer self-management and recovery training and peer-to-peer support.

She said Rumford Hospital officials want to meet with the staff when the center opens. The center also hopes to partner with Oxford County Mental Health.

One room at the business will be renovated, made handicapped-accessible and retrofitted with two cubicles and a computer with free Wi-Fi. There will also be a lounge.

The fiscal agent for the center is the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition, whose executive director, Tavia Melhus, said its role is to mentor the organization and assist in securing grants to open the center.

People may also contribute by taking returnable cans and bottles to Ralph’s Store on Cumberland Street and requesting the money be donated to the center.

The are donation jars at businesses in the community, and donations can be brought to the center. There is also a donation button on the center’s Facebook page.

“I believe you’d have a hard time finding anybody in town that hasn’t been affected by addiction or mental health,” Labonte said. “So this is a pretty easy thing for anybody to get behind as a good idea.”
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Tonia Mason, left, and Kathie Williams at Arbe’s Carpet Center in Rumford, where they plan to open The Larry Labonte Recovery Center later this year. Rumford Falls Times photo by Bruce Farrin