Addiction Has Met It's Match

August 2026 Issue
By Elizabeth Skenes Millen

 

If you have had an alcoholic drink in the last 30 days, you’re not alone. Nearly one-third of Americans age 12 and over joined you. There’s nothing wrong with having a drink to be social or just unwind; that is, unless you can’t stop. And there are many people who can’t stop. In fact, about 48.4 million Americans age 12 and older—roughly 16.8% of the population—had a substance use disorder (SUD) in the past year (2024 data)1. Substance use disorders include problems related to alcohol, illicit drugs, or misuse of prescription medications.

Well, if those statistics aren’t sobering, there’s a loving, welcoming team local to Beaufort County that is—Low Country Recovery Institute. Not only does this organization know recovery is possible, they have seen it with their own eyes.

Meet Deb Copeland and her husband Don Lucci, a couple unlike any you know. They are on a mission, and their growing mission can probably help you. The root of the newly formed Low Country Recovery Institute came to Hilton Head Island eight years ago when Deb and Don started a chapter of Recovery Church within Central Church when Deb heard God’s call to help people struggling with addiction. 

This wasn’t her first time hearing God’s call and obeying. Deb has struggled with addiction herself as a result of an abusive, traumatic childhood with an alcoholic father who abandoned her at age 13, leaving her to solely care for her mother who was dying of cancer. By age 14, Deb had experienced more heavy burdens than many adults ever face and she turned to alcohol and drugs to self-soothe. It’s why many get started on the road to addiction ruin. At 19, Deb laid down alcohol and drugs and followed the calling from God. More than 50 years sober now, she continues to teach and preach recovery.

You may remember Deb and Don from the 15 years on Hilton Head when they served through their ministry Live to Give a God Thing in The Oaks and The Gardens. It was here they began to see a pattern develop in the families of the neighborhood children they were helping attend Hilton Head Christian Academy by providing scholarships.

Deb and Don have six children and have seen two of them suffer through their own family disease of addiction. In trying to help in every way possible, Deb found the Recovery Church Program in Florida. She went down to check it out, and came back to the Lowcountry filled with hope. “Recovery Church is all about healing and recovery God’s way,” Deb explained. “We want people to heal and live free of addiction. We are here to guide those struggling to lasting recovery.”

Recovery Church is a faith-based 12-step program that welcomes everyone, meets participants exactly where they’re at, and serves as a non-judgmental bridge between AA and church. It is for any and all who are fighting addiction of any kind, whether it be alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, even food or shopping addictions. It’s also for anyone who has a loved-one struggling and offers family therapy and guidance on coping with the disease. “People can’t help they’ve become addicted. It’s an illness and takes more than will power to recover,” Deb said. 

Over the last eight years, Deb and Don have seen the need and their ministry grow. So far, more than 500 people have received help through Recovery Church. With the demand so obvious, Deb and Don expanded the mission to locations in Bluffton and Hardeeville, with locations coming to Beaufort and Ridgeland in the near future.

Being complete stewards of God, the couple naturally saw needs beyond the eight meetings a week Recovery Church offers. “We saw people healing, but also saw they needed more in order to get back on track,” Deb said, adding, “You’re either working on recovery or working on relapse.” To help keep people on track, the couple expanded the arms of their mission to form Low Country Recovery Institute, Inc. In providing sober housing, they are helping people work their way back to functioning in the world without alcohol or drugs. “We have seen this affect so many people from homeless to CEOs, and when addiction begins to take control, people can lose it all,” said Don. Their recovery plan also helps people finds jobs and transportation. Often people in recovery have no car or driver’s license, so Deb and Don provide bicycles for transportation. In other words, they work hard on the back end of recovery to remove obstacles that can impede staying sober. In addition, part of the program includes acts of service. “It’s so important for participants to give back and help others, as they have been helped. Like Ephesians 4:28 says: ‘Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need,’” Deb said. And that is what this mission is all about—providing purpose through the power of recovery.

When Deb turned 50 years old, she retired after a successful career as an entrepreneur and business owner. She sold a company early in her career that she built from scratch from one employee—her—to more than 4,000 employees. This early success gave Deb the flexibility to pursue other ventures, which have all been centered in faith and grounded in her dedication to God. Once retired, Deb decided to continue her education and earned a masters degree in counseling and doctorate in theology. She has combined this education with her keen business experience to bring the hope of addiction recovery the Lowcountry—our own backyard. 

The newly formed non-profit organization is the umbrella for five arms of recovery. Not only is Recovery Church helping thousands throughput the Lowcountry and beyond, the other needs Deb and Don have been active in is providing sober housing, recovery resources, addiction counseling, and coming soon is a sober kitchen, where people in recovery can go to a restaurant-style establishment that offers fun food and drinks but no alcohol. “Socializing is so important, but it’s hard for someone trying to recovery to go sit among all the drinks flowing,” Deb said.

So far, Deb and Don have personally funded the entire mission and expansion with the exceptions of some donations. However, they plan to apply for grants that will align with and support the work they are doing. But they would love for this mission to become a true community calling and welcome others to join in either by financially helping or volunteering time. Our community is blessed to have Deb and Don invest their hearts into people who need it most right here in the Lowcountry.

If you would like to volunteer, get involved, make a donation
or need help with addiction, please call 304-545-4302 or
log on to www.LowCountryRecoveryInstitute.com

To give online scan the QR code, visit www.LowCountryRecoveryInstitute.com and click Give Now, or mail your gift to: Low Country Recovery Institute, Inc., 10 Linden place, HHI, SC 29926

Source: 1SAMSHA: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association; www.samhsa.gov