RECOVERY PROGRAM CELEBRATES ABILITY TO REROUTE LIVES WRECKED BY DRUG USE

The Pathfinder Raises Funds To Create Success Stories Like Carol's For More
Residents

When Carol entered a detoxification clinic 2 years ago, she was almost
dead. Drug and alcohol abuse had sent her blood pressure spiraling down to
77 over 48. She had lost her children, her job and her home.

On Sunday, she was celebrating her sobriety and the organization she says
helped save her life.

"They taught me how to live," says Carol, 43, who asked that her last name
not be used. She and her 11-year-old daughter were among about 100
attending a banquet and silent auction to benefit The Pathfinder, a
residential addiction recovery program in Huntsville. The event, which also
honored volunteers and the hard work of current and former clients, was
held at First United Methodist Church.

For four months, from December 1999 until April 2000, Carol lived at
Stepping Stones, the Pathfinder's program for women. She was 39 and had
started drinking and smoking marijuana 20 years earlier. She was a
full-blown narcotics addict when she hit bottom.

Carol is one of 1,100 clients The Pathfinder has served since it opened 26
years ago, said Paul Bakke, the program's executive director. It began as
an alcohol dependency treatment program for men, accepting its first client
in September 1976. The agency expanded to include drug treatment The
Pathfinder benefit raises more than $5,000, honors volunteers Program
Continued from page B1 several years later and added the women's program in
1995.

The Pathfinder has now bought a house next door to its Ivy Avenue location
in southwest Huntsville, so it can have more space to treat women, said
Bakke. The program has six beds for women and continually has a waiting
list. The new home, with five more beds, should open within a few weeks,
said Bakke. The Pathfinder can house up to 26 men.

Bakke also said he hopes to open a third home this summer at 3116 Ivy Ave.
for men who have completed the minimum 90-day program but who have
requested a transition period before leaving The Pathfinder.

In the future, Bakke said, he wants to add a program in which women could
keep their children with them as they go through recovery. They could learn
how to manage the stress of raising children while recovering.

The face of an addict

Carol might not fit some people's conception of a drug addict. She's a
college graduate. She was raised in a loving home with two parents who
didn't abuse alcohol or drugs. "I had good parents, but I chose to go the
wrong way," she said. It took nearly dying to finally turn her around.

"That's what drugs and alcohol does for you," she said. "It will rob you of
all (things) very quickly."

Back in 1999, with no job and no insurance, Carol entered a state-supported
detoxication facility. She was there for a month when the counselors
suggested she enter a halfway house program. That's how she ended up at The
Pathfinder's Stepping Stones.

There, she got tough love and the kind of structure she needed to begin her
recovery, said Carol, who is from Scottsboro. Her two children were in her
aunt's temporary custody while she was going through treatment. After more
than six months, the children moved back in with her.

Since she began her recovery, Carol has remarried. Her husband is also a
recovering addict, and both attend weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Her husband has a good job, Carol said, allowing her to stay home with her
children, who are active in sports, school and church.

"It's one of God's gifts for doing the right thing," she said.

The Pathfinder operates on money from the United Way and the state
Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and from donations from
businesses and local churches and civic organizations.

Sunday's fund-raiser, which included music by local jazz musician Ken
Watters and his group, brought in more than $5,000, said Bakke.