MUSEUM OFFERS OPTIONS FOR RECOVERING ADDICTS

Not too long ago Darrell Gray was looking at a 2 1/2-year-jail sentence,
but on Tuesday Gray was at the Cape Cod Museum of Art looking at works from
its collection and at a drug and alcohol-free future.

The reason for Gray's turnaround was the Gosnold BAND Drug Court Treatment
Program. BAND is the acronym for Barnstable Action for New Directions
Program. It was created by Barnstable District Court Presiding Judge Joseph
Reardon in conjunction with Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael
O'Keefe and Ray Tomasi, president of Gosnold, which provides treatment for
substance abuse.

"I had my third OUI ... and I was looking to reduce my jail time," Gray
says. "I went into drug court thinking I would just do this program and
beat the jail time and what it's done is change my life."

Gray was not alone in seeing his path turned around by the program

"I was doing really bad things before I came in here and now there's
nothing but positive things in my life," says Shannon Treanor, who like
Gray was one of 25 to 30 men and women who came to the Dennis museum as
part of their court-mandated sentence. The purpose of the visit was to give
them an opportunity to see beyond the limits that substance abuse has
placed upon them.

"What we're trying to do is help them create a dream in their lives," says
BAND director Jud Phelps. "We're trying to get them to think about life in
a different way. One of the ways we like to do that is to expose them to
different cultural activities"

BAND case manager George Gritzbach saw this as a way of bringing joy back
into their lives.

"If you take people who were actively addicted and take drugs out of their
lives you have to fill up that hole," Gritzbach says.

Sitting down to a lunch of ham sandwiches, Lays potato chips and Poland
Springs bottled water, they relaxed as Gritzbach, an accomplished musician,
set the tone with his guitar. After lunch they were given a painting
demonstration by Robert Douglas Hunter, who used it as an opportunity to
draw parallels between art and life.

"Focus on the details - not only in painting but in all aspects of life,"
Hunter says, advising his audience to "keep it as simple as possible for as
long as possible."

Following the demonstration all were given a guided tour of the museum.

Reardon, who addressed the group earlier, says the museum program was just
as he had hoped it would be.

"It's a dimension in life that we wouldn't get in court," he says.