MESSAGE OF HOPE OFFERED BY PROGRAM; TEEN CHALLENGE SCHEDULES WALK-A-THON FOR SATURDAY

It used to be that for Spencer Trumps, the best thing to be in life was popular.

"Whatever it took to be in the `in' crowd, I'd do it. If somebody was looking to go out and have a good time, they'd come and get me because they knew I'd go with them," said Trumps, 22.

His teen years, he said, were a blur of drinking, drugs and scrapes with the law that finally ended with his arrest for distribution of LSD in August of last year.

His arrest didn't surprise him, he said. "I lived for the moment and was working only so I'd have money to go out at night. I really wasn't going anywhere."

But instead of jail time for his arrest, Trumps, who is originally from Louisiana, was given the option of enrolling in the Mid-America Teen Challenge Program. He is one of 92 "students" of the program who live at the Teen Challenge facility in Cape Girardeau County.

A walk-a-thon will be held Saturday at the Teen Challenge camp to raise money for the program, which receives no state or federal money. It is a 10-month program for drug and alcohol-addicted men of all ages that supplements rehabilitation with religious teaching.

Trumps said that after nine months in the program, he has found his identity.

"I know who I am. I know that I have a responsibility for myself, to other people and to God."

Eric Wichmann, who like the majority of participants, joined Teen Challenge voluntarily, said his problems with cocaine and alcohol didn't begin until he started college.

Wichmann, 29 and a native of Milwaukee, said that while in college he "hung with the wrong crowd.

"I started with drinking and that led to marijuana and cocaine," he said. "I didn't finish school and just started working."

But for the next several years, his drug habit worsened. He tried Alcoholics Anonymous, he said, but found it offered little hope.

"It was hard for me to accept that type of thinking; that I was always going to be an addict no matter what."

Wichmann describes the two and a half years before he enrolled in Teen Challenge as "pretty desperate." He said his habit had ruined the relationship he had with the mother of his three-year-old daughter, Jennifer.

"What really crushed me was I didn't like the type of father I was," he said. "I wasn't a good influence."

He's been in the program now for five months, and he, like Trumps, admits that though they have turned their lives around, it hasn't been easy.

All of the students spend their mornings in religion classes, said the Rev. Jack Smart, executive director of Teen Challenge. Afternoons are spent picking apples or as a member of the lawn crew. Smart said the work is designed to teach responsibility.

"We're not saying they're going to finish here and go on to work as an apple picker," Smart said. "But they'll know what it takes to be a good employee."

Wichmann said the work teaches patience and endurance. But it's not the most important part of the program.

That aspect is what Smart calls the "Jesus factor." It's also the key to making the program work, he said.

"The spiritual lessons they learn here are the most critical thing," he said. "That's what sets us apart from other programs."

Teen Challenge has been praised by state and local officials for its success rate, which has been found to be about 85 percent, Smart said.

"That means that five years after they leave here, 85 percent of them are completely free of drugs or alcohol," Smart said. "And that means completely."

Smart estimates that it costs about $700 per month for each student in the program, all of it raised through private donations and fund raisers. Participants are charged nothing.

"We are saving the taxpayers thousands of dollars each year by keeping these individuals from continuing a criminal lifestyle. We help them become productive, tax-paying citizens."

The walk-a-thon usually raises $25,000-$30,000 for the program, Smart said. This year, some of the money will be used to renovate a storage building for the wood shop, where students make wooden toys and furniture, he said.

The walk-a-thon starts at 8 a.m. and ends with a luncheon at the Teen Challenge facility. About 120 students and sponsors will participate, Smart said. For more information about the event, contact the Teen Challenge office at 334-7067.

When students complete the program, Smart said, they are encouraged to participate in a re-entry program. "We try to encourage them not to go back right away to the same environment they came from. It's sort of a half-way house philosophy," he said.

Trumps said he plans to become a youth minister and work at the Teen Challenge facility in Memphis. After that, he'll attend Central Bible College in Springfield, he said.

Wichmann said he is unsure of his work plans, but said he is sure of a few other things.

"I just want to be a Christian father and make up for the time I've lost with my daughter. I just want to enjoy life more."