TREATMENT CENTER KEEPS TRACEY'S MEMORY ALIVE

IN memory of Tracey Biletnikoff, 20, who was killed in February, a
poem in the Women's Recovery Association's newsletter begins: ``I have
left my footprints on this old earth my home.''

And indeed she has. The WRA announced this week in Burlingame that a
new residential treatment program for adolescent girls will be named
Tracey's Place of Hope.

While the press venerated her as the daughter of former Oakland
Raiders football luminary Fred Biletnikoff, those at the WRA remember
her simply as Tracey.

She was a young woman who mentored girls, had a bouncy spirit and used
that energy to let people know help was available.

``When Tracey was alive, she did a lot of outreach efforts for us
since she had been a teen addict who had struggled as a young
person,'' said Linda Carlson, WRA executive director. ``There was no
program for her during her teens.''

Now San Mateo County is providing start-up funding for the adolescent
program, which will serve girls 14 to 17 1/2.

It is set to begin in early 2000.

This time last year, the WRA mailed a brochure asking for help to
begin the teen program. The headline said, ``Our Future is Brighter
Without Drugs.''

There was a picture of three smiling, recovering young women with
heads tilted against each other in sisterly fashion. In the center was
Tracey.

Had it not been for the violence of a boyfriend, many said, her future
was bright.

``Her presence was very large here,'' Carlson said. ``She was very
much a part of our WRA family.

``She was someone who came to our program and really stayed and made a
difference.''

As a result, the staff and board decided ``to turn her tragedy into
something meaningful and carry her message of hope to other people,''
Carlson said.

46or skeptics who wonder if her father's fame played a part in the
program's name, Carlson said that she and some other women there who
are not football fans had not heard of him.

``Her fame was not something that our agency connected to us,''
Carlson said. ``Our relationship was really with Tracey.''

But she is full of praise for the Biletnikoff family. The agency and
Tracey's father, stepmother, Angela, and her mother, Jennifer, have
kept in touch.

``They are all very supportive in wanting to honor Tracey's memory in
naming the place,'' she said. ``They feel very good about it, and we
feel very good about it.''

Mohammed Haroon Ali, who has been charged with her death, was a man
she dated and a co-worker at the Project 90 drug rehabilitation center
in San Mateo.

Now in her memory, work will go on to help girls who are seeking a
chance to recover their lives.

The cost of substance abuse in San Mateo County is estimated at $400
million to $500 million dollars per year. And according to the WRA,
that figure does not include treatment, but refers to the tragedies of
substance abuse such as homelessness, hospitalizations, domestic
violence, child abuse and high-risk births.

During her short life, Tracey helped raise money for treatment for
low-income, at-risk girls.

The WRA says a donation of $40 will give one adolescent girl 1.5 hours
in a support group and $75 provides an hour of individual counseling.
The range continues with $2,500 providing 18 days of residential
treatment and $5,000 paying for 35 days.

As plans move forward for Tracey's Place, staffers remember her spirit
and her commitment.

At the WRA's Elm residence where Tracey once lived, staffer Tonita
Doss said she could always count on her to go in the WRA truck.

``Me and Tracey used to go and pick up donations,'' she said. ``She
was fun. She was automatic. She'd say, `What are we doing today, Tonita?' ''