This past year Gray Wolf Residents have volunteered to help many of Port Townsend’s festivals, nonprofit organizations, school programs and senior citizens.

To the right and left are photos from just a few of the volunteer activities where we lent a hand.

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Letter from Andy, a Gray Wolf Ranch graduate

Hi, Peter and David. I just wanted to contact you and let you know how things are going for me here in Michigan. Life has been bittersweet since leaving Port Townsend two years ago. Within six months after I left Gray Wolf, a good friend of mine died, my sister was diagnosed with cancer, and my grandmother passed away. Unfortunately, the stress during that time was too much for me to bear and I relapsed.

Things got so bad that I checked into a hospital in North Carolina. I then went to Florida before ending up back in my hometown in Michigan. Unfortunately, the doctors here never considered the significant emotional events I had experienced when they made their diagnosis, putting me on some hard core psychotropic drugs that robbed me of my soul worse than any drop of booze, pull of weed, or shot of deltoid. I intentionally smoked pot to fail a drug test so that I would be released from the doctors' control, then started drinking again to ease the transition off of the injections that they had prescribed. And on a snowy February day, I hit a tree and totaled my truck. I had a blood alcohol content of 0.17.

But I have now come full circle since I first picked up drinking and drugging. Somewhere through all of my experiences I can honestly say I have become an adult. By using what I learned out in Washington as far as spirituality goes and by believing in positive energy and the nature of things, I have regained control of my life again. I am still jumping through hoops as far as probation goes, but can finally say I am happy and on the right track.

I've joined a summer basketball league, gotten a job cooking at a bar (it helps to see how others act while I'm on the clock and can't drink), and I have a beautiful girlfriend who I live with. I enrolled in the local community college, swallowing my pride from being a former Purdue student, and I find that I effortlessly absorb what is going on in my classes and continually do good work. Being a Ralph Nader and Green Party enthusiast, I've decided I'd like to study sustainable economics and I'm considering going to Western Washington University. Another dream I would like to fulfill is to join the WWU basketball team.

Going to rehab at such a young age is a tough thing to do. But the benefits are priceless whether one continues to use or abstain. Balance is the true lesson I learned in Port Townsend.