KALAMAZOO, MI --

Martin Sheen is best known as an actor.

But activism is an equally great passion for the television and movie star, who was the keynote speaker at the Coming Together 2012 conference held Thursday in Kalamazoo.

Sheen, an alcoholic turned drug court advocate, spoke to more than 200 people at the Fetzer Center on the campus of

for the event, put on by Community Healing Centers and the Drug Treatment Court Foundation of Kalamazoo County.

"Acting is what I do for a living," Sheen said. "Activism is what I do to stay alive."

Sheen encouraged the drug court professionals in attendance to continue their work.

"I want to encourage you to keep on keeping on," he said. "You have no idea how important what you do and how you do it is to our national health and our culture."

Sheen told those in attendance that while not everyone is called to do great things, they are "called to do all things with greater care."

"Such an idea is rare in a culture with such compromised values and so much cynicism," he said.

Sheen said he is always encouraging people to find "something worth fighting for."

"Because when you do, you will have found a way to unite the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh," he said.

Sheen thanked those in attendance for choosing to fight for drug abuse treatment and recovery, since their work helps people like him.

Although most of his message was serious, Sheen did provide some comic relief in talking about his acting career, particularly his character as the president on the program "The West Wing."

"I'm going through an identity crisis," he said. "I became known far and wide as the acting president of the United States. Now I am known far and wide as the former acting president of the United States."

During a question-and-answer session, Sheen was asked if he could still do his famous "West Wing" jacket flip. The trick was met by applause and laughter.

But Sheen said his talk was just an opening act for the second keynote speaker, Earl Hightower, a prominent Los Angeles intervention specialist, who shared his story of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.

For Hightower, who was an addict since age 12, it wasn't until he survived ah airplane crash that killed his father, mother and sister that he determined to turn his life around.

He said he "fell into the arms of Alcoholics Anonymous" and was able to beat his addiction through treatment and following three principles: trusting God, cleaning house and trusting others.

Hightower would later meet a woman at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting who also survived a plane crash that killed loved ones and encouraged her that she could beat her addiction.

"These are the moments in recovery that you look back on and say 'you got to stay sober so you don't miss these moments,'" he said.

Since then, Hightower has worked as an interventionist for 30 years. "I have found redemption in service to others," he said.

Hightower also encouraged the audience that

has "set the bar for the rest of the nation."

"Your drug treatment court is known from coast to coast," he said. "It's unbelievable how your community has rallied around its drug treatment court."

The conference continued with breakout sessions and talks from experts in the field of treatment and recovery.

Aaron Mueller is a public safety reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Contact him at amuelle1@mlive.com or 269-568-3867. Follow him on Twitter.