BATON ROUGE – Former WBRZ and CNN reporter John Camp is being honored by the O’Brien House Recovery Center by having a treatment room named after him.
For more than half a century, the O’Brien House has been helping alcoholics and drug addicts in the Baton Rouge area recover. WBRZ had the opportunity to speak with O’Brien House Executive Director Dr. Emily George Tilley about the significant contribution the camp has made to recovery.
“We offer 90-day inpatient care for men and women with addiction problems. We also have an adult substance abuse education program with intensive outpatient prevention,” Tilley said.
Camp struggled with alcoholism early in his career. After getting help, he set out to help others in Baton Rouge overcome their addiction.
In 1971, six months after getting sober, he helped found the O’Brien House.
“He founded O’Brien House after helping some gentlemen from the AA community get them to a meeting and finding that they were living in an institution with unsanitary and unsafe living conditions,” Tilley said.
Camp was sober for 53 years and kept coming back to O’Brien to tell his story, listen to theirs and offer encouragement to the people at the center.
“I’ve been here for 12 years and probably 10 of the 12 years I’ve been here, Mr. John has come back every month and talked to customers. He’s provided them with information,” Tilley said.
Camp died in January at age 88. His family said that instead of sending flowers to his funeral, they should donate to the John Camp Great Room renovation project at O’Brien.
Now, on Monday the 19th, the center will celebrate its 53rd anniversary and will name the center’s main hall in honor of Camp, a space where he inspired many.
“This room is where all of our meetings take place, where our group meetings with clients take place, where we have our annual Christmas party, and where all of our major events take place,” Tilley said.
