Hope House uh when I first came across

the threshold and what it means to me

was it was love right off the bat. My my

childhood was kind of chaotic. I come

from a single dad, alcoholism. Um little

chaotic. And then I just was screaming

for help and looking for some direction

in my life. I was young. I was 15 years

old and just came across the threshold

of Hope House and it just it just opened

its arms and just welcomed me in and it

just showed me love from day one.

Myself, I was kind of a troubled kid,

right? My mom had got into a car

accident and my dad was uh God rest his

soul, he was an alcoholic and he was

trying to struggle with that. So there

was a lot of violence in the picture.

So, I remember one day my dad was going

at it pretty good and I I was thinking

to myself, how can I really get out of

this situation right now? And I said,

"Hey, I I need to I need some some help.

I need to talk to a priest. I need to

talk to the church. I need something to

kind of alleviate the pain and chaos."

And I had known about Hope House and I'd

heard about it and I asked my dad to

take me here to talk to someone. And

then that's where I got a chance to meet

Father Frank and the Hope House

Ministries and the staff. And that kind

of started the journey for me to get

away from the chaos and to bring me into

some hope literally some hope. Going to

school on the regular regular meals,

simple little things that I wasn't

really getting at home.

Father Frank, he's like, "Hey, do you

guys want to go skiing and would you be

interested in that?" just to take me to

another environment and being able to

experience that sport and, you know,

like fun, you know, genuine fun and that

was that was amazing. And just the the

brotherhood, the companionship with my

buddy Eric, having a brother that I

could experience these new things with

was pretty cool, man. So, for me, what

was different about Hope House and the

other directions that I took in my life

was the unconditional love. It was the

people that were plugged in that didn't

they they they didn't give up on me when

I made bonehead moves and I'd stay out

or be around the wrong crowd or they

they were just always there to to dust

me off and kind of put me back on my

feet and say we're going to we're going

to go at this again and I probably broke

a record for being the on the grounding

list more than anybody in the whole

institution but you know it was just it

was just love and and just kind of pat

on the back and saying you know, you're

going to push through. You're going to

get through. And the people that are

plugged in, the staff that I'm that I

knew, you know, helping me with my

schoolwork, being there after school

when I came home to, you know, or

helping me build a model. There was just

so many different people that are

plugged in to the ministries. To go to

therapist sessions and being able to

unload all the things that I've been

through in my life and and kind of get

some direction is just so different than

any other program or or recovery path

that I've been in. And I just want to

add that I've been through a lot of

them. I'm I'm 16 17. My wife reminds me

17 years sober now. And I think that

Hope House Ministries was an

instrumental part of that, man.