FORMER DRUG ADDICT DRESSES UP HIS IMAGE FOR A COMEBACK

ROBERT DANIELS, former sharp-dressed man, is making a
comeback.

Before crack cocaine cleaned out his wardrobe and his soul, Daniels
probably helped you dress for success. He was a fashion buyer for a
major department store in San Francisco, a bright young professional
on his way to the top.

Then he fell -- not so much a crash as a gradual slide, his life
crumbling in slow motion over a period of years. He lost his job, car,
home, wife and young son.

Now Robert is fighting back, through rehab and realization, back to
reality, and Season of Sharing is helping him dress for the journey.
SOS sent Daniels to A Miner Miracle for a hair and clothing makeover.

A Miner Miracle is a nonprofit firm founded by Kathy Miner on the
philosophy that while image isn't everything, it's very important.
Self-image and projected image make a difference when you're fighting
back from down and out.

"By the time people come here, they've worked hard," says George
Pereira, the men's image counselor at A Miner Miracle, "and it's great
to see them get a reward, see their spirits lifted and walk out of
here ready for a job or an interview."

Jobs and interviews used to be no problem for Robert Daniels. Big
companies lined up to make him offers. He was hot.

Daniels was a high achiever in high school and college, worked hard,
got excellent grades, graduated from San Francisco State with double
bachelor's degrees in marketing and management. He came from a good
family of eight kids, all of them solid students and citizens, and
Robert never so much as smoked a cigarette.

. . . Until his college graduation party, when there was cocaine and
weed and, hey, school was out.

Daniels had several job offers and opted to become a fashion buyer,
and the slide began. Cocaine was part of the job-style and lifestyle,
and Robert put up no resistance. He snorted before breakfast and into
the night, but it was OK. Coke was the drug of the elite, the hip.

"I was good at what I did," Daniels says, "so I was able to maintain a
high drug usage. Then it got out of control, and when the drugs didn't
work with the job, I thought it was the fault of the job."

He quit, took another job. Then he fell in love, and he and his wife
had a son, and Robert became a home dad. But by then, he had graduated
to smoking crack.

"My son would go to sleep and I'd party all night. He'd wake up, I'd
be wired." Robert was functioning, fooling people and himself. He was
superintendent of the Sunday School and a crack head.

He went to work as a field coordinator for Willie Brown's mayoral
campaign and outperformed most of his co-workers. But finally, it all
caught up with him. Robert's wife left him and took their son.

"I'm glad the crack came along," Daniels says. "Otherwise, I'd still
be a functioning addict. The crack tore me down to the point I
couldn't even hide it from myself. I wasn't functioning anymore."

Robert underwent a court-ordered drug rehab in '89, but went through
the motions and quickly relapsed. Last summer, he decided on his own
to do it for real. The same person who got him into drugs was going to
get him out -- Robert Daniels.

Daniels, homeless, checked himself into the Salvation Army's recovery
house, Harbor Lights.

Soon he'll be moved to transitional housing and will regain custody of
his son, Robert Daniels II, who is 7. Daniels works at Harbor Lights.
He plans to earn his teaching credential and also do some
case-management work with recovering addicts.

On his morning at A Miner Miracle, Daniels first got a haircut. "It's
been a long time since I've been in a barber chair, pampered like
that," he said.

Many nonprofits provide makeovers for struggling and welfare-to-work
women, but A Miner Miracle is the first in San Francisco, possibly
anywhere, to provide that service for men.

The clothes are high quality -- new stuff donated by stores and
excellent used items from private donations. "If you have some nice
clothes you're not using, get 'em out of your closet and bring 'em
here,' Pereira advises.

Pereira and Daniels worked together to select two sporty yet
businesslike outfits, plus shoes and accessories.

"This is the kind of people I meet now," Daniels says of Pereira.
"Everybody is doing something for someone else. To get this service
where I used to work, you'd pay $100 an hour. I know George isn't
making that, and he's good. Everybody I meet now is giving back."

Robert expertly knotted a tie, snugged it up.

"I know where I came from," he said, "and I know where I'm going."