Success Stories
The First Graduate
In 1976 our country celebrated its 200th birthday. But there was another celebration going on that was a bit more personal, Cheryl Sapp’s graduation from Project Rehab. She was the first. One morning Cheryl woke up “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” In the 1970s, heroin ruled many lives, including Cheryl’s. She was part of our Methadone program, but that didn’t work for her. She needed something more. With three felonies hanging over her head she says, “Part of me wanted to get better, and part of me wanted to beat the system.” She would get parole if she stayed in the program. “I learned I was selfish and overbearing and that I am my own worst enemy.” After graduation, life was not smooth sailing. She relapsed, and took the ‘geographical cure’, she left Michigan for Georgia. While there she married a man who struggled with alcoholism. She took him to A.A. meetings. “He didn’t get fixed,” she says, “but I found stuff that worked for me.” Today, Cheryl and her husband run The Over-Comers. She calls it a “12-step program right out of the bible.” She has earned a Master’s Degree and is a licensed minister. “Project Rehab saved my life. It’s why I’m here today.”
Cheryl’s story appears in 40 Stories of Courage and Hope: Celebrating 40 Years of Project Rehab, which was published in Fall 2008 in recognition of Project Rehab’s 40th anniversary. Click here to read more stories about our courageous clients and the treatment pioneers who helped make recovery possible.
This story is sponsored by Holland Litho