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Orlando Sentinel 1974 article including links

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GregFL:
STRIPE sent me this article a couple months back and asked me to get it up for all to read.  This was published in 1974 in the Orlando newpaper and includes pictures of the St Pete and Miami seed.


 Stripe, here it is and sorry for the delay.

Thanks to Ginger for HAND transcribing the entire article and scanning the pics and providing the links.

GregFL:
http://fornits.com/anonanon/theseed/ima ... ver-sm.jpg



cover of the article

GregFL:
http://fornits.com/anonanon/theseed/ima ... ide-sm.jpg

Caption: Seed parents weep openly at session where daughter professes she?s ?gone straight? and she?s ?comin? home.?]

(NOTE:  THIS IS A PICTURE OF THE INSIDE OF THE ST PETERSBURG SEED LOCATED IN THE MORGAN YACHT BUILDING.)

GregFL:
The Seed
Getting High on Getting Straight
by: Ed Bend Jr.



Attention Parents: Ex-alcoholic, former comedian Art Barker says, for $750, he?ll put your doped-up teen into a peer pressure cooker called The Seed and months later serve you an All American kid.

Jerry, an ex-druggie is talking: For me, when I came in, people said to me, ?Jerry, you can be a great person. You are not just a druggie who will never amount to anything. You have hope.?

They said ?this is how you feel?
And then they started saying, ?I used to be like you, I used to have feelings like you, I used to do drugs.? Two who did everything from pot to heroin, and who lived on the streets?I mean on the streets, no place to live but under bridges or in alleys?these two told me how they felt then, how they felt now. They said they felt happy, serene. And they said, ?This is what you do to be like us. This is how you get straight, what you do to feel like we feel. If you want to be serene, do this.?

It didn?t take that much, just being honest with myself, having a want to change.

Dan (another former drug user): There are three signs: Think-Think-Think. First Things First. Easy Does It. The Seven steps. Another sign, ?You?re Not Alone Anymore.? The Serenity Prayer. We learn how to use these tools, tools to getting straight. We talk about our beliefs a lot. We don?t say, ?Let?s sid down and talk about our beliefs,? but we talk about them.

Jerry: One person told me, ?Well they don?t make you cut your hair, but after they punch all this stuff into your head then you say, well, I want to get it cut.? And he says we are forced  to do things?sit in chairs, listen and things like that. But we?re not. I wasn?t forced to eat my lunch or dinner. And I wasn?t forced to turn around and pay attention. And I wasn?t forced to relate. And I wasn?t forced to change.

In less than four years, a controversial Florida drug rehabilitation program run by a temperamental former alcoholica and financed chiefly by parents has gotten straight 5,000 kids like Jerry and Dan.

While it doesn?t work for everybody, The Seed?located in Fort Lauderdale, St. Petersburg and until recently Fort Pierce?has worked for a very large segment of the state?s young drug-users.

What it does, through a crude form of behavior modification, is put ?clients? into a peer pressure cooker. Officially, it?s a non-residential drug rehabilitation program whith ?clients? living in foster homes during an initial phase. For all referrals, the minimum time is one month in phase one and about six months to complete the program. The time is doubled for clients sent by the courts. After the first phase, they can return home to live.

GregFL:
What do they do? During the first phase, clients attend long daily ?raps? from 10 .a.m. ?til 10 p.m. At night they live in foster homes with ?oldcomers? (who are on the second phase of the program) or ?old timers? (graduates). On the second phase, they attend one open meeting, two 7 to 10 p.m. raps, and one 12-hour weekend day weekly.

The facilities aren?t fancy, leaving little to distract the interaction. Walls are painted white. There?s an American Flag. And the three signs. The seed has been housed in old residences, and in Dade County for a time at the vacant Tropical Park Racetrack.

Open meetings are held two nights each week. Kids and parents sit in groups facing each other and can talk to each other through a public address system.

Parents? attendance is important. The Seed boasts no failures when both parents participate fully.

A Seed ?success? is not just a kid who doesn?t use drugs anymore; it is a kid who has a positive outlook on life, who makes better grades in school, a kid who goes out of his way to do his chores at home and who looks to his own future with optimism and enthusiasm.

It is a kid with a smile on his face because he is happy.

Scene: A mother speaking to her daughter who has been in the program only a few days: ?I?m so glad to see you with a smile.?

?It feels so good to have one,? the girls answers back.


http://fornits.com/anonanon/theseed/ima ... de2-sm.jpg


Caption: At The Seed?s twice weekly open meetings, kids and parents face each other and confront the drug problem over a public address system. The controversial rehabilitation program is privately financed, chiefly by parents of participants and past participants.]

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