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Trees Of Hope: All About MN Adult & Teen Challenge

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- This holiday season WCCO-TV is highlighting groups that help others and could also use your help.

Trees of Hope is now shining a light on the good work done by Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge, a place for people who are fighting for their lives. Not a hospital, but an organization that offers another kind of healing for those who are battling drug and alcohol addiction.

In the center of a thriving metropolitan area, it's an unlikely place for peace. But for 30 years, that's what they've built a name on, a name that's evolving.

"The people who know us know us as Teen Challenge. The people who didn't know us didn't know that we could help people over 18," employee Pati McConeghey said. "So we went through the name change."

McConeghey works alongside dozens who have collectively welcomed thousands of clients, including Dave.

"I grew up in Hastings, played hockey and baseball, had a great childhood," Dave said.

Six years removed from college, and Dave is back in a dorm room. After launching a successful sales career, he now lives with a roommate and 70 other men ranging from their 20s to their 70s.

Right now there are about 500 people living in dorms. The cost they have to cover is about $1,500 per person. Most clients don't pay a penny, thanks to people who donate.

"The money that someone might donate to us goes to counseling and providing services to people who are very much in need of help," McConeghey said.

There is a list of options. Some treatment plans are outpatient, but the most popular is the 13-month inpatient plan.

Dave, his family and girlfriend decided that was their best hope. He was drinking more than a liter of vodka per day, hidden in a water bottle.

"Around 3 in the morning, I would kind of go through the withdraw so I would have to have a drink in the morning just to kind of make sure I wasn't going through the DTs or the shakes," Dave said.

He's just the type of client Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge wants people to know they serve. Service members, teenagers, senior citizens -- they are all fighting the same battle.

While some are homeless and destitute, others like Dave hid their addictions well.

"Most of us probably realize that within our own families and friendship groups, there's someone who is functionally working through life but they have an addiction," McConeghey said.

They treat it all, from meth, cocaine and OxyContin to alcohol. Their plan uses a faith-based approach.

"It allows people to find a reason for recovery, a way of redemption, an opportunity to believe new things about themselves," McConeghey said.

"I've just really started to enjoy life and my new identity in Christ," Dave said, "and just being able to express myself and to be open and not try to hide things and put on a mask."

Dave is on the cusp of graduation, which McConeghey said is her favorite part of the job.

"When the men and women walk across the stage and reunite with families, even apologize to their children and to their mothers and fathers and say, 'This is over, I'm starting a new life, and it's because of this program,' I'm tremendously proud of that, proud of them," she said.

After he graduates, Dave will become one of McConeghey's colleagues; he's joining staff as an intern.

"I'm getting married in May, so I'm excited to spend the rest of my life with the woman I love," he said.

It's all thanks to a place that redefined what the rest of his life would look like.

Next Tuesday night, Dave will join his new colleagues live on WCCO-TV to collect donations for Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge. But you don't have to wait until then; you can always donate here.

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