ANNUAL PICNIC FEATURES 200 DRUG COURT FANS

OGDEN -- Some 75 recovering alcoholics and substance abusers took over the
bowery at Lorin Farr Park Saturday evening for the 4th annual Ogden Drug
Court Alumni Picnic.

About 200 family members and friends joined the gathering with the alumni
group, one of the stronger components of the 2nd District Court alternative
program for drug abusers.

When the first alumni group of drug court graduates gathered about 41/2
years ago to form the alumni committee, their number was about five.

Typically it takes a year to get through the intensive therapies and
testing of drug court to reach alumni status.

"We sort of sat around twiddling our thumbs, wondering exactly what we
should be doing with the alumni," said Kevin Koopmans, the Weber County
Human Services substance abuse counselor who started the drug court program.

"We never imagined this," he said Saturday, gesturing toward the bowery
full of alumni and family, children bustling around everywhere.

"We were hoping for this," said K.C. Benn, drug court treatment
coordinator, "but it's still a surprise."

Koopmans just returned from a national drug court conference in Florida in
June where speakers talked about a 5 percent benchmark as normal for drug
court graduates to get involved with alumni programs. The Ogden figure is
more like 25 percent, Koopmans said, with about 50 graduates attending
alumni committee meetings.

"And they meet weekly," he said. "At the convention they were happy if they
were showing for monthly meetings.

In its 51/2 years of existence, the Ogden drug court has produced about 200
graduates, officials said, with a similar but smaller number washing out of
the program in that same time period.

For Lynne Pietrucha, drug court is structure and accountability. With 717
days "clean" and as one of the newer members of the alumni group, she said
before drug court, "Everything was somebody else's fault. I had to learn to
be accountable for myself."

As to her former drug of choice, she said, "All of them. I would take
anything. But I got arrested for methamphetamine and marijuana."

And of the alumni group, and a drug court graduate's continuing attendance
in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and
others, she said, "We're a family ... The biggest thing is being part of
something. When I can help another addict, it really helps me out."

Koopmans also points to the veterans of the alumni group: Mike Memmott, the
only president its ever had and its leader in days clean, 1,595; and Seana
M., who doesn't give out her last name, Alcoholics Anonymous-style, like
many drug court grads. She's second in days clean with 1,494.

The alumni committee's latest list trumpets 102 members with a total of
60,486 clean days, or 165.6 years.