By Randy Haak
Apricity gave our son, Dan, the help that he needed over 27 years ago. What’s the price of a life? How do you value putting a family back together? If we can save just one person’s life, everything that Apricity accomplishes is worth it. Thank you. Thank you for giving me my son back.
Perhaps the toughest (and maybe also the best) decision I have had to make as a parent was to tell my son that he needed to seek help and that I would support him 100% if he would do that. But until that happened, he could not come home, and I could not support the life he was leading at the time.
Without a place like Apricity’s Mooring House (residential treatment for men), Dan would not have had anywhere to go. I needed the Mooring House to be there when he was ready to seek the help he needed. Without it, my decision would have only served to isolate him further from us and would have left him on a path to disaster. The Mooring House led him to STEP Industries (now Apricity Contract Packaging), and together, they led him to recovery.
I don’t think I could have anticipated the miraculous change in Dan’s life or the positive changes it has meant for our entire family. Instead of wondering where he was or what he was doing, we now wonder when we will be able to get together and when we will see our two beautiful grandchildren. The anxiety and fears of the past quickly disappear with these positive experiences.
The challenge of taking on an addiction is more than a family alone can handle, and it can be overwhelming. The combination of Apricity’s programs provides the structure and support that we as family can’t provide on our own.
We are constantly reminded in the media of the tremendous costs to society of drug and alcohol abuse and addiction: human costs, financial costs, taxpayer costs. From my perspective, investment in Apricity is a much more positive use of our resources. Even one person in recovery is an accomplishment we should cherish, because it means all of the negatives associated with addiction for that person and his or her family can be avoided.
I am eternally grateful for the gift that Apricity has given to us: the gift of a son and his family.
I am really proud of you, Dan.
A Son’s Perspective: The unconditional love I received… is why I’m here today.
By Dan Haak
I still remember the whirlwind of how I got into treatment. I had run out of options with my friends and family…so I reached out to my dad for help. My idea of help and his idea of help were very different. I needed a place to stay, some money, and time to sort things out. His idea of help was that I needed some professional help for my drinking. That meant treatment and a supportive place to live, but it didn’t mean with him.
I started working at STEP Industries and hated it, but I stuck it out…It took me 4 or 5 months to realize that this change probably could not be a temporary one. It was going to have to be a lifelong change if I wanted to achieve the things I hoped for.
I learned to surround myself with good people and became more comfortable owning my recovery… who I have become because of my sobriety is too important to me, and I’m grateful that I was given the chance a long time ago.
The unconditional love I received once I made the decision to find recovery is why I’m here today.