FREEDOM HOUSE MARKS 10 YEARS WITH OPEN HOUSE TODAY

ROGERSVILLE - Amanda expected an institutional setting when she opened the
doors of the two-story English Tudor home off U.S. 72.

"I thought it was going to be like a hospital," the 23-year-old woman said.

Amanda, who asked that her full name not be used to protect her privacy,
has completed two months of a substance abuse treatment program.

She lives at Freedom House with a dozen other women recovering from drug
and alcohol abuse at the residential program in Rogersville.

Amanda and her 2-year-old son, who also lives at the facility, expect to
spend Christmas with the other women seeking a clean life from drugs.

"The girls here are close like sisters," she said.

Today, the public is invited to meet women like Amanda and visit the place
they call home.

The public is invited to attend Freedom House's open house, which starts
this afternoon.

Freedom House Director Peggy Perdue said the event marks the center's 10th
anniversary. Brenda Hawkins, a former addict who saw a need for a facility
for women in the Shoals, started Freedom House in November 1993.

"In the beginning, people said the Freedom House would never work," Perdue
said. "But because of the support of the community, it has worked."

In fact, more than 500 women have graduated from Freedom House programs in
the past 10 years, she said. Some former clients work as staff at the
facility, which has a dormitory look.

Freedom House also runs an outpatient program in Rogersville and a
nonresidential, co-ed drug treatment program in Russellville.

Perdue said today's open house would give the public a chance to tour the
facility and meet the women who benefit from donations of money, clothes
and household items.

"It's a chance for us to say thank you for their support," Perdue said.