FORMER ADDICT REACHES OUT TO HELP

With boxes of clothes lining a wall and garments piled high on top of
her bed, Shari Shaver is ready to help outfit any woman struggling
with drug and alcohol addiction.

There's also furniture and appliances tucked away in a Mundelein
storage unit ready to be doled out to women who need help getting back
on their feet.

Shaver, 46, a recovering addict herself, has helped more than 65 women
since May 2003, when she decided to form Rebekah's House.

"They can get stuff from the time they come into recovery until they
go into their own apartments again, which is self-sufficiency," she
said.

Self sufficiency is the goal, but sometimes after being down and out
these women need a boost, she said. Many of these women are homeless
and penniless, so Rebekah's House provides at no cost the necessities
for independent living.

"We offer them clothing for them and their children. We help them with
household items, whether it's furniture, dishes ... anything that you
would need to start a house."

Expanded vision

While the organization has been successful helping clothe many women
and providing them with some essential pieces of furniture and
appliances, Shaver and company want to do more.

The Rebekah's House officers are looking for a recovery house.

"It's just a sober safe place for women to stay until they get back on
their feet and they feel ready to return to independent living,"
Shaver said, adding there will be rules and regulations, including
requirements that residents attend counseling and recovery meetings
every day.

Opening a recovery house can't happen soon enough, said Tom Job,
rehabilitation supervisor with the Addiction Treatment Program. There
are only three for women in all of Lake and McHenry counties, he said.

"There's definitely a need," he said.

There is always a waiting list of 400 people, and the Addiction
Treatment Program can help only 24 at a time, he said, adding
recovering addicts need a safe place to go after finishing
detoxification. When there isn't a place to go they often lapse.

"Without places like Rebekah's House, we'll never be able to break the
cycle," he said.

Shaver and company are applying for not-for-profit status. In the
meantime, they are gearing up to provide holiday cheer to women in
other treatment centers and recovery houses.

They're making gift baskets containing shampoos, bath and shower gels,
toothpaste and toothbrushes and other assorted hygiene products.

Shaver knows firsthand what these women need. She struggled with
cocaine and alcohol addictions before deciding to turn her life
around, she explained, sitting in front of a large pile of clothes and
baskets that had been donated just hours before.

Hope and peace

The sun glinted off a metal dove in the center of a purple ribbon
pinned to her shirt. She started making those shortly after starting
Rebekah's House.

"The dove is a sign of hope and peace, and that's what we're looking
for because we've had so much other crap in our lives that a little
bit of hope and peace doesn't hurt anybody," she said.

A native of Lincolnshire, Shaver started doing drugs when she was 12
and started drinking when she was 13. Life has been a struggle ever
since. She became a single mother, raising two children while working
two jobs and sporting a penchant for cocaine and alcohol.

She said the relationship with her son's father was abusive. She was
in and out of treatment centers and tried to get clean and sober a few
times. She was spiraling out of control.

On March 11, 1999, intoxicated, she found herself contemplating
suicide at a truck stop.

"I didn't want to live like that anymore and I didn't think I could
live straight," she said

While trying to decide on a method of killing herself, she passed out.
She credits God for putting her to sleep.

When she woke up two hours later, she was in a different frame of
mind.

"The first thing on my mind was not suicide. It was recovery," she
said, adding she went to a phone booth and called the Lake County
Addiction Treatment Program, which she has been involved in as a
client and volunteer helper.

Shaver also credits God for the inspiration for the name of her
program. She said "Rebekah's House" mysteriously popped into her head,
and would not leave, even though she doesn't know anyone with that
name.

She called a friend studying to be a pastor to find out if Rebekah was
a name in the Bible, and was told of the story of Isaac's wife from
the book of Genesis.

"She was not a very nice woman," Shaver said, recalling how the
Biblical Rebekah favored one of her twin sons, Jacob, over the other,
Esau, and resorted to trickery to get blessing for her favored son.

"She was a liar and she was a thief because she stole the family
blessing," she said. "It's just weird. A lot of alcoholics and addicts
that I know, including myself, were liars and thieves when we were out
there. It's just so weird how this all ties in together."

Angelic

Shaver has been on a roll since 2003. Agencies now refer their clients
to Rebekah's House.

Ann Clark, a substance abuse counselor with the Addiction Treatment
Program, said Rebekah's House has been hugely successful. Shaver shows
up at meetings, finds out what clients need, and often delivers those
items to them. Clark said most of the women have lost everything.

"If they need something, she's there," Clark said. "She's an
angel."

Those interested in making a donation of clothes, furniture,
appliances or items to be placed in the holiday gift baskets, can call
Rebekah's House, (847) 821-0851.