REHAB GIVES SECOND CHANCE

If not for the rezoning proposal sign on the gate, the South Surrey house
would probably not attract much notice.

It's a drug and alcohol recovery house on the corner of 10th Avenue and
160th Street called the Launching Pad. Since June it's been home to a dozen
men trying to put the ravages of drugs and booze behind them and get their
lives back on track. The owners want the property rezoned to allow up to 17
residents.

Partners Dave Houston and Ed Warnke moved the Launching Pad to South Surrey
from its former location in Aldergrove. It's no surprise to them that some
neighbours are against the proposal; that's par for the course when a
recovery house comes to town, they say.

"Someone's going around telling people that the cops could pick up a user
off the side of the road and bring him right here," Houston said.

"That's not true; it never happens."

More than 90 per cent of the Launching Pad's residents come from treatment
programs, he added, where they've had counselling and learned something
about controlling their addictions.

"They have to leave rehab after 30 or 60 days and they need somewhere to go
- - somewhere safe. That's what we provide."

Former Los Angeles Kings left-winger Keith Redmond knows all about that.
He's a Launching Pad graduate who lost it all to alcohol and, at 28, is
working hard to get it back.

Redmond grew up in Ottawa and by the age of 14, was already drinking. He
was also playing hockey and he was good. Good enough to be the Kings'
second-round draft pick when he was 17 years old.

"I played a year for their farm team and the next year, that would be the
'93-'94 season, I played in the NHL," Redmond said.

But he was drinking heavily - very heavily - by then and, two years later,
Redmond was out of hockey and on the skids.

When he showed up at the Launching Pad's door, he had literally nothing. No
money, nowhere to live, no food and next to no self-respect.

"I was at rock bottom. I'd got to the point where I couldn't work, my
family couldn't have me around anymore and I couldn't function in society.
I was just an average drunk.

"I was beat up enough that I was willing to do whatever it took to get
sober. That was my dream."

The recovery house gave Redmond the support he needed to make his dream
come true, and he's never looked back. He understands the worry neighbours
feel about the house, but said people need to realize the residents aren't
there to make trouble - they're there looking for a new start.

Devon, 39, has been at the Launching Pad since June and will be moving on
soon. He's a musician. Devon's recorded for Capital Records and owns two
Junos - the Oscar of the Canadian music industry - but drugs and alcohol
got him, too.

"I had a good career in the entertainment industry; a couple of Junos,
MuchMusic awards. My addiction took it all away," Devon said.

He has four kids ranging in age from 19 months to 23 years. His brother
drowned while swimming drunk, he said, and the mother of his oldest child,
a daughter, committed suicide with drugs and booze.

"Anything I loved and worked for was gone."

What Devon called his "moment of clarity" came last Christmas. He'd been
tossed out of the Downtown Eastside hotel where he'd been living and had no
money and nowhere to live.

"I decided to go home to my family. On Christmas Eve they said, 'We don't
want you here anymore.'"

Devon checked himself into a recovery house and started down the rocky road
to sobriety. The Launching Pad is his third stop on that journey.

"I've come to the point where I've learned what I needed to learn. Now, I'd
like to move on and get a place of my own. Yeah, it might be scary, but
with the tools I got here, maybe I can make it."