Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Straight, Inc. and Derivatives => Topic started by: Ursus on April 02, 2011, 10:02:13 AM
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Turnaround Inc.
Anyone know anything about this program? Whether it still exists, what happened to it?
It's allegedly a L.I.F.E. Inc. spin-off, which opened in late 1987 in Winter Haven, Florida.
I couldn't find anything in our database, but maybe I didn't try hard enough...
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That sounds about right, there were alot of kids at Life from the Lakeland/Winterhaven area. I think I even remember them talking about opening a program up there, not sure though, memory is fuzzy.
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Here's possibly one of the earliest mentions of it, judging from a quick rummage through Google's News Archives:
Caption for an accompanying pic:
Parents and teens pitch in to prepare Post Avenue School in Winter Haven for the foster care drug-treatment program.
Mike Leschisin/The Ledger[/list]
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The Lakeland Ledger
Tuesday, September 9, 1986
Turnaround plans foster care to help kids fight drugs (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OqdOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YfsDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=2595%2C3323705)
By Richard Burnett · The Ledger
WINTER HAVEN — with a Sarasota-based organization now serving as a consultant, some local parents and young people are gearing up efforts to establish project Turnaround, a foster care drug-treatment program for Polk County youth.
Officials of Turnaround Inc. last week retained the services of LIFE (Life Is For Everyone) of Sarasota to help them with the structure, training and other details of setting up a drug rehabilitation program for young people ages 12 to 22.
Meanwhile, a number of parents and young people have been working on weekends to get the Turnaround building in shape. The Polk County School Board is leasing the old Post Avenue School in Winter Haven to Turnaround for $1 a year, according to Bernadine Spanjers, acting executive director of Turnaround.
Spanjers is also a board member of the parent drug education/referral group PRIDE, which has been vitally involved with founding Turnaround Inc.
"We need a lot of donations to make this program a reality," Spanjers said. "We do need money, but we also need materials for the building and skilled volunteer help for wiring and other work."
Meanwhile, parents and young people have been cleaning up the building, clearing off grounds and doing other basic work to get the site ready for development.
Organization officials said they hope to get the building and the program ready within a year at the latest.
"There is a lot of work to do, but I think it is possible to have it ready in six to eight months," said Frank Savoie, a Turnaround board member, facilities chairman and local businessman. "Getting air conditioning for this building is going to be the biggest thing."
"We don't have a definite target date, but if we really move on it, I think we can open it within eight months," said Rubie Wilcox, a Turnaround board member and Polk County School Board member. "I really believe the community is going to come through for it."
Aside from the building expenses, Turnaround's bill to LIFE for consultant services also represents a hefty sum. Spanjers said their monthly payment to LIFE is $2,000. By the time project Turnaround opens its doors, consultant costs will total $40,000, with $18,000 more due after the program begins, she said.
It's a lot of money, but we feel it will be well worth the cost," said Spanjers. "This has been a dream of ours for a long time. There are a number of excellent drug rehab programs for adolescents in Polk County, but because of the 'crack' problem here, they are bulging at the seams. Our program will be modeled on the LIFE foster care concept, which adds a whole new component to drug rehabilitation."
Spanjers said a number of Polk County young people and their families have traveled to Sarasota to be in the LIFE rehab program, which involves a combination of counseling, family-child co-participation and foster home care. In the Sarasota concept, families who are going through the program with their children act as foster families for young people new to the program, according to Spanjers.
Polk and other non-Sarasota County residents pay about $4,000 for the LIFE program, according to Turnaround officials. But this figure varies on a sliding scale according to income, officials said.
The Turnaround program here would cost about half as much for Polk residents, according to Bob Bagby, a Turnaround board member and president of PRIDE.
"It is just an excellent approach," said acting executive director Spanjers.
Wilcox said that most adolescent drug treatment programs in Polk County have waiting lists, which make it difficult to deal with the increasing demand.
"At this point, it is very hard for us to give immediate help to a young person who is in a drug crisis situation," she said. "With this program, we'll be able to do it."
Anyone interested in making a contribution of money, time or materials to project Turnaround can call 294-1853.
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Of course, an introductory article (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=36896&p=399427#p399399) like that needs the proverbial "troubled teen saved from the abyss" story to accompany it. Published alongside the above piece was this heartwarming tale:
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The Lakeland Ledger
Tuesday, September 9, 1986
'We didn't want to believe she had a drug problem' (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OqdOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YfsDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=4055%2C3322354)
By Richard Burnett · The Ledger
The Winter Haven family members in this story preferred to remain anonymous. Confidentiality is a major part of the program in which they were involved.
Today, the 16-year-old girl's green eyes sparkle, her smile comes easily and she exudes a peace about life. Now she can laugh warmly with her parents about some things of the past.
Most of all, as a result of a drug treatment program in Sarasota, she is free from drugs.
Two years ago, she was strung out on pills and alcohol. She was angry and rebellious.
For more than a year, her parents either remained unaware of their daughter's problem or denied that it existed. They felt they had been good, loving parents; their other children were well adjusted.
But it happened.
In the eighth grade, their daughter went from alcohol to marijuana to speed and other drugs that she calls "unknowns."
Two weeks before her parents put her in the Sarasota-based LIFE program, she was offered cocaine or "crack." Although now she doesn't exactly know why, she turned down the offer.
" 'Crack' had not become the big thing that it is now," she said. "Most of the people I hung around with then are into cocaine now."
She said that she tried drugs because of curiousity and a desire to be accepted by friends.
"I began to hang around people who were into drugs and alcohol," she said. "Just about all my friends then were into it."
Her parents began to see a change in their daughter.
"In a six-month period, we saw a total degeneration of her life," her father said. "For a long time, we didn't want to believe that she had a drug problem and she didn't want to tell us that she was doing drugs."
Her grades went from B's to F's. She altered the grades on her report card to keep her parents from knowing. She shoplifted from local stores. She lied about her friends and where they went on nights out.
"We wanted to believe her," her mother recalled, "but finally we caught her lying three times in one day about where she had been the night before. And that made us take action."
Her parents had learned about LIFE from some friends, and they immediately arranged to place their daughter in the program.
The treatment proved successful. Through the program, she went to live in a foster home and had to earn the right to see her parents again. That process took five weeks, she recalled. After that, her parents visited Sarasota twice a week for open sessions where they would talk honestly about the drug problem.
She was in the program for 16 months.
"I had to learn that I didn't need drugs to make myself happy," she said.
As part of the continuing therapy, she now speaks at public engagements about the drug problem. Her parents also have tried to share with other parents what they have learned.
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A coupla months down the road...
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The Lakeland Ledger
Thursday, November 6, 1986
Anti-drug program to launch fundraiser (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KAUwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jvsDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=3924%2C2701009)
By Richard Burnett · The Ledger
WINTER HAVEN — Officials of Turnaround Inc. said Wednesday they are laying the groundwork for a major $300,000 fundraising campaign to begin in February of 1987.
Since September, the Winter Haven-based agency has been organizing to launch a new drug rehabilitation program for Polk County youths between the ages of 12 and 22.
Acting executive director Bernardine Spanjers said Wednesday that the organization already has received almost $20,000 in private contributions. She estimated that the program will need at least $150,000 in its first year of operation.
"We have not been actively fundraising yet," she said. "But we have gotten some very nice contributions and we're grateful for that."
Spanjers said that committees had been set up to deal with raising money, remodeling the agency's building, setting up a staff, obtaining insurance and finding a permanent executive director.
Phil Wortman, director of the Lakeland YMCA, is in charge of the fundraising committee.
Wortman said that he and other committee members have been planning the structure for the agency's major fundraising effort early next year.
"We're setting a goal of $300,000 and we're getting our key leadership in position now," he said. "A campaign like this, which will go all across Polk County, is really tough and takes a lot of advanced planning."
More than 1,400 volunteers will participate in the effort, according to Wortman. He said that the campaign chairman had been chosen and is now setting up the organization structure.
Wortman would not say who the chairman is but that the man is an "extra prominent and very respected person in the county."
He said that a widespread publicity effort is planned for when the campaign is officially launched.
"This will be the biggest fundraising effort ever for a drug rehab program in Polk County," he said. "I can't think of any fundraising effort in general that will be this big. This is quite a massive undertaking."
In September, the Turnaround agency obtained a building, the old Post Avenue School System for $1 a year.
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The movers and shakers behind the creation of L.I.F.E. Inc. spinoff Turnaround Inc.: P.R.I.D.E. of Polk County
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The Lakeland Ledger
Friday, November 7, 1986
New PRIDE president expects to triple group's membership within the next year (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KQUwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jvsDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=4140%2C3262306)
WINTER HAVEN — Newly-elected PRIDE president Kenneth D. Clanton said Thursday that the drug education group will focus on expanding membership and supporting its spinoff group, Turnaround Inc., in the coming year.
The Winter Haven-based group announced Thursday that Clanton was elected president at a recent annual meeting of PRIDE, which stands for Parents Resources and Information on Drug Education.
He succeeds Robert E. Bagby, who recently became the new president of Turnaround Inc., an agency established to begin a new drug treatment program for young people in Polk County.
"A lot more people now know more about drugs and the problems of drugs and that should help us grow in membership," Clanton said Thursday. "I think we can at least triple our membership this year. We could do a lot more if we can obtain more members."
Clanton, a local optometrist, said that PRIDE has 200 members throughout Polk County, but that number represents a significant decrease in membership from its original size.
But the new president said PRIDE would continue its community drug education efforts and reach out more broadly through school-based programs.
Joining Clanton as new officers are: Rubie Wilcox, vice president; Patricia Furnival, secretary; and Allan L. Casey, treasurer. Newly elected board members include Dan Mann and Edward Smith.
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A wee bit of unreadable text at the beginning of this one...
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The Lakeland Ledger
Saturday, February 14, 1987
Drug Treatment Program Raising Funds (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CKlOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dvsDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=5265%2C6325723)
By Susan Barbosa
The Ledger
LAKELAND — ... <unreadable text> ... $300,000 ... <unreadable text> ... planned foster home-type drug treatment program in Winter Haven starts soon with the help of U.S. Rep. Andy Ireland, R-Winter Haven.
Turnaround Inc. will be a non-profit program for young people age 12 to 22. It is patterned after LIFE Inc., a "positive peer pressure" program located near Sarosota that has treated more than 1,700 families.
In a letter supporting fund-raising efforts, Ireland called Turnaround "more than just a 'quick fix,' it is a real life-changing process for both young people and their families."
Ireland plans to host a golf tournament and barbecue at Cypresswood in Winter Haven on March 15 to benefit the fund-raising effort.
Family involvement is a cornerstone of the Turnaround program, explains Phil Wortman, another supporter of Turnaround and executive director of the Lakeland YMCA.
Parents are expected to attend talks and meetings at least twice a week. They may also be asked to take into their homes children who are new to the program.
Turnaround will be housed in the old Post Street School, located next to the Bordo Plant in Winter Haven. The Polk County School Board has agreed to lease the building.
Supporters hope Turnaround will be staffed in six months and ready to work with about 20 families.
The cost of the program will be about $4,200 per family, said Barron Burhans, a member of Turnaround's board of directors. Donations will be requested from the community to sponsor families with financial problems.
The project is the result of a 1983 study by PRIDE of Polk County. The parents' self-help and education group determined there is a need for a local program that teaches users and their families better living skills.
PRIDE supports the new program, but Turnaround will have its own board of directors and will operate independently, said supporter Carol Bagby.
The program can take from six to 18 months to complete.
The Turnaround treatment program is divided into five phases. At first the client attends the program about 10 hours a day and lives temporarily in a home with another client of the program who is further along. In the third phase, the client moves homes and returns to school or work.
For more information on Turnaround, call 644-9895 or 294-1853.
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Dr. Donald Ian Macdonald (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=32952), former clinical or medical director of Straight, Inc., speaks at a press conference and reception in support of Turnaround Inc.:
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The Lakeland Ledger
Sunday, March 15, 1987
Federal official praises drug rehab efforts (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QqlOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=b_sDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=4629%2C6015286)
By Susan Barbosa
The Ledger
WINTER HAVEN — The director of the White House Office for Drug Abuse Policy came to Polk County Saturday to encourage a community effort to open a long-term, family rehabilitation program.
And today, U.S. Rep. Any Ireland kicks off a $300,000 fund-raising effort for Turnaround Inc. with a golf tournament at Cypresswood Golf and County Club in Winter Haven.
"As parents and members of the community, we cannot ignore the drug problem," Ireland said Saturday. "We have to take the initiative and respond as neighbors."
Modeled after the Life Program in Sarasota, Turnaround evolved from efforts by members of a Winter Haven parents support group PRIDE (Parent Resources and Information on Drugs Education).
Dr. Ian Macdonald said the federal government has a responsibility to help fund drug prevention and treatment programs, but he praised Turnaround supporters for their grassroots effort.
"Government can come in and do things," Macdonald said, "but what you have here is a commitment from the community to get this done and I think that is better."
Turnaround, a 13-to-18 month treatment program, is scheduled to open this summer. It will be located at the old Post Street School in Winter Haven.
Up to 100 young people, 12 to 23 years old, with addiction problems will attend programs at the school during the day. At first they will live with a family that has a child further along in the program.
Parents and other family members attend programs several times a week and are involved in stages of the child's treatment and return home.
Turnaround will not depend on government money, said Bob Bagby, president. It will be funded by contributions and fees.
Ireland said: "I know that we need this kind of treatment program in Polk County because a lot of our families have been traveling to Sarasota to the Life Program. This kind of rehabilitation where the family participates has saved many lives and it is something a lot of people in Polk County have been working to have here."
Macdonald, a pediatrician in Clearwater before his appointment to Washington in 1984, spoke at a press conference before he appeared at a Turnaround reception Saturday night.
He said the "parents movement" against drugs has been joined by a "youth movement."
"People are seeing what drugs do to lives and they are saying, 'We are not going to take it anymore,' " Macdonald said.
More young people are aware of the risks, he said, and surveys show that there is a slowing in the number of young people using some drugs.
"Part of what a drug treatment program deals with is teaching that you don't always get what you want in life," Macdonald said. "People forget what addiction is. Dependence begins when a person comes up against a problem and instead of dealing with it, turns to alcohol or drugs."
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Modeled after the Life Program in Sarasota, Turnaround evolved from efforts by members of a Winter Haven parents support group PRIDE (Parent Resources and Information on Drugs Education).
Dr. Ian Macdonald said the federal government has a responsibility to help fund drug prevention and treatment programs, but he praised Turnaround supporters for their grassroots effort.
"Government can come in and do things," Macdonald said, "but what you have here is a commitment from the community to get this done and I think that is better."
It's possible that the notes for Dr. Macdonald's talk at the above fundraiser for Turnaround Inc. on 3/14/1987 ... may be located within the following files from the Donald Ian Macdonald Collection (http://http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/textual/smof/macdonal.htm) from the Reagan Archives:
From Box OA 16999:
PRIDE (1)-(6)
PRIDE (1)-(5)
PRIDE Concept Paper
PRIDE Conference 1986 03/19/1985 - 03/22/1985
[PRIDE] Mtg with Beny Primm 04/20/1982 in NY[/list]
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Financial tally for that fundraising charity golf tournament, which also included the above mentioned press conference (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=36896&p=399859#p399655) by Dr. Ian Macdonald:
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The Lakeland Ledger
Tuesday, March 17, 1987
Golf Tournament Raises 3,800 For Drug Rehabilitation Program (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FpQsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uPsDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=6853%2C369188)
By Richard Burnett
The Ledger
WINTER HAVEN — Proceeds to the Turnaround Inc. drug rehabilitation program now total about $3,800 as a result of this past weekend's charity golf tournament, according to agency officials.
As a kickoff to Turnaround's six-week major fundraising campaign, The Nancy and Andy Ireland Family Golf tournament at Cypresswood drew more than 125 golfers including Boston Red Sox pitcher Bob Stanley, according to Bennie Spanjers, acting executive director of Turnaround.
"This was a super kickoff for the campaign," Spanjers said Monday. "I haven't been this pleased with something in a long, long time. It was a wonderful family day."
Proceeds from the golf tournament along with several major donations have pushed the campaign's first week total to almost $10,000, Spanjers said. The campaign goal is $300,000, she said.
Turnaround President Bob Bagby said agency volunteers will continue fundraising efforts through mid-April.
Bagby said he was very pleased with the kickoff golf tournament.
"We are thrilled to death to get that much from an event that we had hoped would just let the people know what we are doing," said Bagby. "We found a lot of support from the media and the community and I think we made a lot more people aware of what we're trying to bring to the county."
Each golfer paid a $50 entry fee to participate in the tournament Sunday afternoon, according to officials.
A special reception Saturday night featured an appearance by Dr. Ian Macdonald, an official of the federal Department of Health and Human Services and director of the Reagan Administration's substance abuse program.
At the reception, Congressman Ireland, honorary chairman of Turnaround's fundraising campaign, gave a pep talk to other campaign volunteers.
Turnaround's fundraising campaign now has more that 1,250 volunteers throughout the count, according to agency officials.
Phil Wortman and Barron Burhans are fundraising co-chairmen of the campaign.
Funds raised during the campaign will be used to establish a new drug rehabilitation program for youth in Polk County. The Turnaround program will be modeled on a program now in place in Sarasota called LIFE, which stands for Life Is For Everyone.
Turnaround officials say that many Polk young people with drug problems have received treatment from the Sarasota-based program.
"We already have some fine treatment programs here in Polk, but given our current epidemic of substance and alcohol abuse among young people, we don't have enough," said Spanjers. "This will be a new one, and one that we believe will work."
The LIFE program combines a foster care concept with individual and family counseling over a period of time to treat young people with substance or alcohol addictions.
Agency officials said they hope to begin the program in four to six months.
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More fundraising activities...
Caption for pic, showing some women doing aerobics, accompanying the below article:
Linda Walker and Julie Rice, left to right in back, with Alisa Rawdow in front.
Ron Barron/The Ledger[/list]
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The Lakeland Ledger
Thursday, March 19, 1987
Aerobic workout benefits drug rehab program (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5rNOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uPsDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=6517%2C925833)
LAKELAND — Area aerobic instructors are getting together Saturday at Lake Gibson High School gym and donating their time and efforts to raise funds for Turnaround Inc., a proposed adolescent drug rehabilitation program for troubled Polk County youth.
The Saturday Morning Workout is 9 a.m. to noon, with aerobic instructors providing continuous aerobic classes for donations to Turnaround Inc., a non-profit, foster-home type adolescent drug rehabilitation program dedicated to providing persons ages 12 to 22 the opportunity to change destructive behavior to positive, drug-free lifestyle. The drug program will be patterned after the successful and nationally acclaimed L.I.F.E. Inc. program located just south of Sarasota, which is the nearest facility to Polk County. Many of the families needing the program are unable to make the commitment to drive that distance at least twice a week, making this an important project for Polk County.
Aerobic instructors participating in the Saturday Morning Workout are Lou Gardner with Aerobic Attic; Julie Rice, the Lakeland Family YMCA; Marcia Luhn and Aurora Hansen, Lakeland Recreation Department; and Alisa Rawdow and Linda Walker with Lakeland Adult Education. Congressman Andy Ireland is the Polk County fund-raising chairman for Turnabout Inc., and all donations are tax-deductible. Minimum donation for the 30-minute classes is $3, or $1 for spectators.
Contributors will be offered free blood-pressure checks by Quality Care North, a stress success class, a better back and abdominal class, a weight room supervised by coach Tom Ray, a computer printout of body fat composition given by Kay Shramek, and a running class on safety, including a fun run around the campus area.
Special attention and instruction will be given to beginners, and advanced participants will get a high-quality workout. All participants should come prepared to work out, complete with proper gym floor shoes and loose, comfortable clothes.
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So um ....not to be obtuse but......did this abomination even get off the ground?
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So um ....not to be obtuse but......did this abomination even get off the ground?
It sure did. I'm surprised no one seems to have heard of it. Maybe it's just one of those things... perhaps not enough kids went through it, compared to all the other Straight spinoffs.
You'll have to stay tuned. Coming up soon: an old profile on Rubie Wilcox, who is still, fwiw, a force to be reckoned with. A few years ago, she was campaigning to get mandatory drug testing of all high school students approved by the Polk County School Board.
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Some off the cuff musings before I continue...
There's an interesting typo in the above article, "Aerobic workout benefits drug rehab program (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=36896&p=400703#p399955)." Towards the end, this Straight Inc. spinoff program Turnaround Inc., the subject of this thread, is referred to as "Turnabout Inc.":
...Congressman Andy Ireland is the Polk County fund-raising chairman for Turnabout Inc., and all donations are tax-deductible. Minimum donation for the 30-minute classes is $3, or $1 for spectators.[/list]
Now... "turnaround" and "turnabout" are quite similar both in meaning as well as phonetics, having two out of their three syllables in common, but... I was kinda struck by the usage of the latter due to its being the name of another alleged Straight spinoff founded right around the same time in Utah.
In 1986 or 1988, depending on which version of their history you believe, a program called Turnabout Ranch was founded just south of Salt Lake City. Like the Straight Inc. model ... they use host homes. They later also added "Stillwater Academy" to their name to reflect the academic component.
There were other Straight spin-off programs commencing operation in Utah around this same time as well. KIDS of Salt Lake City and one of Layne Meacham's programs come to mind... Meacham, incidentally, and fwiw, had indeed sent an assistant / associate to train with Newton in New Jersey despite his claims or insinuations to the contrary.
Although the current version of Turnabout Ranch's history (http://http://www.turnaboutteens.org/about-turnabout-stillwater-academy.php) cites "a small group of therapists" as being the founding group, previous archived versions cite a parent group. Specifically, a parent group called Parents Helping Parents. Sound familiar, anyone? :D
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Although the current version of Turnabout Ranch's history (http://http://www.turnaboutteens.org/about-turnabout-stillwater-academy.php) cites "a small group of therapists" as being the founding group, previous archived versions cite a parent group. Specifically, a parent group called Parents Helping Parents. Sound familiar, anyone? :D
From "STRAIGHT, INC. ...an unpublished dissertation" by Miller Newton*, color emphasis added:
The basic instrument of this re-entry or re-acculturation is the large group (approximately 300 children in St. Petersburg and 90 at our Sarasota branch). The large group represents adolescent peer pressure for recovery, since the same peer pressure originally initiated the children into drug-use. The large group is a transitional or therapeutic sub-culture which serves as a bridge for the children back into the main culture. The large group is both the group of kids and the group of parents. It is based in part on the Alcoholics Anonymous concept "that those people who have a problem and are recovering can best help other people who have the problem". So STRAIGHT, INC. is "kids helping kids" and "
parents helping parents". STRAIGHT, INC. is a self-help community with trained leaders.[/list][/size]
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* From the assortment of docs contained within "Cartlon Turner - Letters, Memos, etc. (http://http://survivingstraightinc.com/FederalGovernmentStraightDocs/CarltonTurnerDocs/Carlton-Turner-Lettrs_Combine.pdf)" (49p PDF; pp 39-40). Apparently this unpublished dissertation was eventually incorporated into Miller Newton's book Gone Way Down.
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Coming up soon: an old profile on Rubie Wilcox, who is still, fwiw, a force to be reckoned with. A few years ago, she was campaigning to get mandatory drug testing of all high school students approved by the Polk County School Board.
So... this was a front page 'Monday Profile' on Polk County School Board member Rubie Wilcox, who also happened to be a co-founder of Polk County PRIDE, as well as being heavily involved with PRIDE's project Turnaround Inc.
Straight, Inc.'s former Director of Medical Research, Dr. Donald Ian Macdonald, is even mentioned (albeit sans said distinction :D ).
Caption for pic accompanying the below article reads:
Rubie Wilcox's home on Lake Ned in Winter Haven is carpeted with azaleas, impatiens, philodendron and other foliage.
Chris O'Meara/The Ledger[/list]
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The Lakeland Ledger
Monday, April 13, 1987
Wilcox knows sorrow drugs bring (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KrcwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=j_sDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=3338%2C6436355)
By Kathleen Hill
The Ledger
School Board member Rubie Wilcox is having a tough time.
She's spent hours poring over more than 100 anti-drug posters submitted by area students, and she's supposed to help pick out one that will be printed and distributed countywide.
The trouble is, they all look good to her.
Never mind that some are crudely drawn, with crayon smears and fingerprints. To Wilcox, it's the message that counts. One, in particular, captures her attention, despite its less-than-perfect lettering.
On one side, a teen-ager is shown lying on his bed smoking marijuana. On the other side, the same boy lies in a coffin, surrounded by tearful family members. The caption reads, "Today's user, tomorrow's loser."
"That has real meaning for me," Wilcox says softly. "I'll tell you, I bet they've had it in the family."
She ought to know. Wilcox's own son died from an overdose in 1979 after a six-year battle with drugs that tore her world apart. His death, and the determination to save others from a similar fate, transformed the soft-spoken Winter Haven homemaker and one-time Army officer candidate into a determined anti-drug lobbyist and politician.
Wilcox's one-woman war against drugs has taken her from drug paraphernalia shops in Polk County to the pages of Family Circle and into the living rooms of millions through an appearance on the television talk show "Hour Magazine."
She's not all talk, though. Instead of just complaining about the lack of accurate drug information in the late 1970s, Wilcox co-founded PRIDE of Polk County, a drug information and referral service for parents.
In 1984, she landed a seat on the School Board — no small feat for a Republican in Polk County — where she paved the way for a comprehensive drug-abuse education program that is a statewide model.
"She's changed a lot of thinking around here," said her close friend and colleague Bennie Spanjers, with whom Wilcox founded PRIDE six years ago.
Word of Wilcox's accomplishments has even spread to the nation's capital. Just ask Dr. Donald Ian Macdonald, President Reagan's adviser on drug-abuse issues, who appeared with Wilcox on "Hour Magazine" in 1984.
"She's an absolute zealot," the former Clearwater pediatrician said. "She is enormously committed to this issue. But it's more than that. I think Rubie just sort of exudes love. You look at her and there's nothing phony about her."
Wilcox, 60, is embarrassed by such praise. She discusses her work matter-of-factly, with a touch of self deprecation, as though she can't quite understand what the fuss is all about.
"You don't really want to know all this, do you?" she asks frequently during interviews, when the conversation strays into her personal life. Wilcox would much rather talk about the anti-drug crusade that nearly has become synonymous with her name.
But while she's reluctant to talk about herself, details sometimes speak for her. Take her favorite movie, for example, the Frank Capra classic, "It's a Wonderful Life." She loves the sentimental tale of a small town hero who puts the needs of family, friends and the community about his own.
It's easy to see why.
Patriot
Patriotism and public service are nothing new to Rubie Fay Wilcox, who says that the importance of those things was impressed upon her from childhood.
For Wilcox, those lessons began in Long Beach, Calif., where her parents, Richard and Celia Fay, taught Rubie and her two sisters to love their country and to work hard.
Her mother, a registered nurse, left that field to start a dry cleaning business to help pay for her daughters' education. Her father worked for Mobil Oil as a gauger, a job that involved monitoring the oil level in huge storage tanks and running the pumps that sent petroleum into the refineries.
Between the two incomes, Wilcox said, the Fay family made a comfortable living, and life in Long Beach was sweet.
It was just a nice little neighborhood where you left your doors open because you didn't want to lock out your neighbors," she recalled. "That was the way it was until the war came. After that, as war does, it changed everything."
For Wilcox, the bombs that fell on Pearl Harbor might as well have fallen on Long Beach. World War II began when she was 15, a sophomore in high school.
"It wasn't your normal high school after that," she said.
Serious business
"Those were years when everybody worked and there weren't a whole lot of pleasures," Wilcox said. "When we went to school, it was serious business."
The summer she turned 16, she got a clerical job at Douglas Aircraft, which was operating at full tilt to meet the war demand. Even then, Wilcox said, she was anxious to do her part for her country.
"That was the feeling of the time," she said. "If you didn't fight in the war, you weren't much of an American."
She was so gung-ho, in fact, that she lied about her age to join the Army at 19 — a year before the legal age for enlistment during World War II — a youthful indiscretion that she's embarrassed to talk about today.
Back then, however, the Women's Army Air Corps was a gateway to the exciting places she longed to see, such as China, where she was stationed for a year shortly after the war ended.
Her desk jobs there, recording awards and decorations and keeping tabs on personnel, weren't that exciting. But after hours, Wilcox explored Shanghai and Peking, driving around the countryside and making friends.
"I look back on it now, and I think, 'Oh my gosh, when my daughter was 19, if she had been there I'd have been worried sick.' But I was as at home there as I am in Winter Haven ... It was fascinating."
Seeing China whetted her appetite for travel. In 1946, the lure of free air travel led her to take a communications job with Trans World Airlines. For the next year and a half, she toured America on weekend jaunts, going "wherever the planes were going."
Meeting Wilbur
Tiring of travel, she moved back home in 1949 and took a stenography course at Los Angeles Business College. Friends arranged a date for her with Wilbur Dean Wilcox, a Marine Corps captain who was stationed near her home.
"She was a fiery redhead then, and quite independent," said the man who became her husband six months later. "She had a good head on her shoulders."
They married on Aug. 16, 1950. Ten days later, before they even had a honeymoon, he left for Korea. It was the first of many separations, and many moves, for the Wilcoxes.
From the time they married to the time they settled in Winter Haven in 1970, the family moved 11 times as Wil Wilcox's orders changed. the nomadic lifestyle took its toll on the couple's children, Mark and Teresa.
"He didn't move easily," Wilcox said of Mark, her eldest, a good-natured but fragile youngster who had trouble making new friends.
When Wil Wilcox retired from the Marines, the family moved to Winter Haven, "a nice little Southern town," to escape the drug culture that was being glorified in California, Wilcox said. But the move proved to be ironic.
"That's when my whole world fell apart," she said.
The week the Wilcoxes settled here, Mark, 16, became friends with a boy who introduced him to marijuana. Soon he was smoking is six times a day, unbeknownst to his family, who attributed his sudden moodiness to adolescence.
Wilcox said she and her husband had no idea their son was involved with drugs.
"He was a water skier, he was a scuba diver, he learned to fly an airplane," Wilcox said. "He did all of these things, and he did all of them stoned. It's a miracle he didn't kill someone. But in the end, he just hurt himself."
Son had problems
Mark dropped out of Winter Haven High School two weeks before graduation, left home and was jailed for vagrancy in Fort Lauderdale. He spent the next four years in and out of mental hospitals, which weaned him from his dependence on marijuana, but not from tranquilizers.
In May of 1979, he went out jogging and didn't come back. His body was discovered in an orange grove a mile and a half away from his parents' home near Lake Florence. The cause of death was a lethal mixture of alcohol and antidepressants. He was 25.
Mark's death opened another chapter in Wilcox's life. At a time when her friends are thinking about retirement she is once again at war, this time against a much more insidious enemy. She is often angry.
"Oddly enough, it doesn't make me angry when they're down and out, and they're hurting and willing to help themselves. I'll work with them in any way I can," she said. "But once they've been through treatment, been straight for a year, and then they backslide ... well, it's hard for me to tolerate."
Wilcox has watched PRIDE — Parent Resource Institute for Drug Education — grow from a handful of concerned parents who once met around her dining room table to a countywide organization with considerable clout.
The non-profit agency takes two to six crisis calls a day from parents, referring them to drug-treatment facilites and support groups. Volunteers lobby their legislators, speak before church and civic groups and conduct programs in the schools.
PRIDE's latest project has been Turnaround Inc., a 13 to 18 month treatment program for young people scheduled to open this summer in the old Post Street School in Winter Haven.
Wilcox, who now serves as PRIDE's vice president, is still the driving force behind the agency, observers say.
Spanjers said her friend never stands on ceremony when it comes to the drug issue.
No fluff
"She doesn't hesitate to tell people — very gently — that she thinks they're wroing," she said. "She's told that to judges, and police and to mental health people."
Wilcox raised eyebrows three years ago by supporting a Democrat, Dan Daniels, for sheriff because of his strong anti-drug stand. Although the two are close friends, she's told him off a few times, too.
"Every time I'd slow down on the drug thing, she'd be right on my neck, and she was right in every case," Daniels said. "I think she's a very pushy person on drugs — and I wish we had a hundred more like her."
Wilcox admits to being a little overbearing sometimes, but questions whether that's a drawback when it comes to fighting drug abuse.
"After all, I'm right and they're wrong," she said with a smile. "They don't know what I know."
She also rejects criticisms that she focuses too much on the drug issue, to the exclusion of other School Board responsibilities.
Wilcox said she's gotten involved in special education and vocational programs during her tenure on the board and had defended parental concerns on issues such as discipline. She has mixed feelings about corporal punishment, saying she'd rather see youngsters serve detention or perform some service for the school system.
Her willingness to question the rules hasn't always scored points for her in the Polk school system, where discipline is rigidly enforced.
Concerned
"On most occasions, the board supports teachers and administrators, and that's as it should be," School Board Chairman Dan Moody said. "But on some occasions, her heart was stronger than her mind was clear. She does tend to go to the rescue of the child."
School Board member Nancy Simmons applauded that tendency, however.
"Sometimes you can be too consistent, and the consistency makes it unfair," she said. "Rubie injects an element of, 'Wait a minute, what about the kid?' "
Wilcox's political affiliation alone makes her something of a maverick in Polk County, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2-1. She faced an uphill battle three years ago running against Bob Stephenson, a Democrat and a 31-year veteran school administrator and teacher.
Wilcox won the $17,563-a-year job by about 3,100 votes, making her the only elected Republican now holding a countywide post. (Sheriff Lawrence Crow was appointed by the governor.) Wilcox is only the third Republican to hold a Polk County School Board seat.
Political differences have faded since the electin, according to Wilcox, who says that school boards should be non-partisan. Observers say that if politics ever do become an issue, it will be next year, when Wilcox, now vice chairman of the board, is due to become chairman — the same year she runs for re-election. Leadership positions on the board are usually rotated among the members.
Democratic board members denied Spanjers that chance when she was on the School Board in 1979. One member cited a "loyalty oath" that prevented him from supporting a Republican, while others suggested that Spanjers would use the chairman's post to steal attention while seeking re-election.
Polk County Republican Chairwoman Jean Burt said she doesn't expect the same thing to happen with Wilcox, although the circumstances are similar.
"I really believe that this board is more mature and fair-minded than that," she said. "I don't think the School Board has a harder worker, or a more sincere one, than Rubie Wilcox."
Wilcox plans to run for one more term, "to see that drug program so in place that no one can ever untangle it."
"Then, I'm going to stop and I'm going to travel and do all the things that I want to do," Wilcox said. She wants to visit Australia, Japan and especially Ireland, where she can explore her family roots.
These days, Wilcox barely has time to visit Brandon to see her daughter Teresa, a buyer for Eckerd Drugs in Clearwater. When she does, she dotes on her 2-month-old granddaughter, Kristen.
On the rare occasions when she's not working at the PRIDE office or tending to school business, Wilcox enjoys swimming in her pool, reading mysteries (Mickey Spillane is her favorite), playing bridge and listening to Gershwin and classical music.
Her hectic schedule leaves little time for her favorite hobby, gardening. The yard surrounding her sprawling 12-room house on Lake Ned is carpeted with azaleas, impatiens, philodendron and other foliage, which she planted shortly after Mark died.
She thinks of him often. From her living room, the view of the lake is breathtaking, but it saddens her with memories of how her son loved to waterski.
"Once you lose a child, you're forever different," she said. "When they're born, you're forever different, and when they die, there are changes in your personality and the way you think, the way you live, that are permanent."
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Sidebar to the above article by Kathleen Hill, "Wilcox knows sorrow drugs bring (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=36896&p=400855#p400803);" includes a head shot of Rubie Wilcox:
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The Lakeland Ledger
Monday, April 13, 1987
Monday Profile (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KrcwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=j_sDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=6862%2C6467741)
Name: Rubie Fay Wilcox
Occupation: School Board member, co-founder and current vice president of PRIDE of Polk County
Birthdate: June 3, 1926
Age: 60
Place of birth: Hermosa Beach, Calif.
Family: Husband: Wilbur D. Wilcox; daughter: Teresa Weeks of Brandon; granddaughter: Kristen Weeks.
Education: Jordan High School, Long Beach, Calif. Attended Oceanside Community College and Los Angeles Business College.
Interests: Gardening, boating, swimming, bridge, travel.
Goals: To establish a drug education program in Polk County schools, kindergarten through grade 12. To open Turnaround Inc. a residential drug-treatment program in Winter Haven.
Quote: "The foundation for a better tomorrow must be laid today."
Motto: "Indecision is the graveyard of good intentions."
Philosophy: "Believe in yourself, and what others think won't disturb you."
Latest accomplishment: Becoming a grandmother.
Biggest disappointment: Last November's defeat of a proposal to create a Juvenile Welfare Board.
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The below article, detailing local fundraising efforts on behalf of Turnaround Inc., is actually to the left of the designated title link. Apparently, this article has no link of its own...
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The Lakeland Ledger
Thursday, April 16, 1987
East Polk news
Frostproof students, faculty support drug rehab center (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ubcwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qfsDAAAAIBAJ&dq=turnaround-inc&pg=5396%2C280469)
By Bill Blair · The Ledger
FROSTPROOF — Students and faculty members at the Frostproof Junior-Senior High School hope they can make the school one of the first in the county to pledge firm support for a proposal to build a drug rehabilitation center in Winter Haven.
A variety of activities, ranging from straight-out donations to dunking booths, have been planned this week at the school to raise funds, according to Assistant Principal Mike Tucker.
Tucker said the goal is to raise the equivalent of at least $1 for each of the 525 students at the school.
And with a donation of at lest $50 from the Frostproof Senior High class, it's possible that the school will exceed the goal, Tucker said.
The funds are for Turnaround Inc., a non-profit group that plans to build a $225,000 facility in Winter Haven, according to Tucker.
Turnaround Inc. is planning a "non-profit, foster home type, adolescent drug rehabilitation program," according to literature provided by the organization.
Patterned after a similar program in Sarasota, the program is "dedicated to providing persons (ages 12-22) the opportunity to change negative attitudes and destructive behavior to attitudes which will allow a happy, positive drug-free life."
By Wednesday, the school had already raised more than $400, according to Tucker.
Tucker said that included a $1 per student fee for those attending a special baseball game at the school Tuesday afternoon.
Wednesday's planned activities, however, had to be postponed until today because of rain.
Tucker said students plan to set up a variety of booths during the lunch period to raise funds for the project.
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