Five years ago, Megan Miller went to The Ark of Little Cottonwood, a drug and alcohol treatment center, trying to find help for her daughter Erin. What she didn't expect was how much she'd end up helping the center.

Miller was honored for years of service to The Ark Friday with the opening of Megan's Peace Garden, a garden maintained by the center's clients and dedicated to promoting healing.

"This is just honors on top of all the gifts I've already received from The Ark," Miller said. "My life has been changed so much by this place."

She took Erin to the center at a time when many of the neighbors were fighting to have it removed from its location in a residential neighborhood near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. She volunteered to work as a liaison between the treatment center and the public, and devoted countless hours talking to neighbors and explaining what The Ark does, said Gloria Boberg, executive director of The Ark.

"I cannot think of anyone more deserving to have this garden named after them," Boberg said.

About 70 people attended the ribbon-cutting and explored the garden, which features fountains, flowers, vegetables and a small stream. Fruit trees, pathways and benches also fill the one-acre space. Clients and staff from The Ark have been working on the garden for about a year, Boberg said.

Dave Cox, a former client at the center, said he went to five different treatment centers for his addictions and nothing worked until he went to The Ark. The Ark is nondenominational, but it focuses on spirituality in the healing process, which made the difference for him.

He left with a passion for helping others overcome addiction, he said. He went to the University of Utah and completed a program in counseling those with addictions, and he now works as an intern at the center.

Working and meditating in the garden has a healing effect on people trying to overcome addiction, Cox said.

"I find clients here on a regular basis walking, thinking, meditating," Cox said. "You think of some of these guys as hard-case drug addicts, and then you come out here at night to find them in a prayer circle praying together."

Lauren M., the most recent graduate of the program, said working in the garden was a huge help during her stay at The Ark. At first, she and the other clients had a bad attitude about going to work in a field, but at the end of one day of digging in the dirt and pulling weeds, everyone felt much more peaceful, she said.

"There's a therapeutic power in connecting with the Earth. It connects you to a higher power," she said.

After being released from the center Tuesday she plans to begin attending classes at the University of Utah to study psychology, she said.

Miller's husband and children were also on hand Friday, except for her son, who is on an LDS mission, and her daughter Erin, who is on her honeymoon. She married another graduate of the program.

Miller continues to volunteer at the center, leading support groups for the families of those undergoing treatment. Addiction is a disease that affects the entire family, she says.

The Ark houses about 20 people at a time. The facility is made up of two houses, one for women and one for men. Clients usually stay at the center 90 days.

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E-mail: dfelix@desnews.com