Drugs and alcohol had cut short
their schooling and career goals.
Now, a group of women from Sanibel
and Captiva are trying to give the women of the Southwest Florida Addiction
Services (SWFAS) a chance to pick up where they left off.
The women s group Zonta Club of
Sanibel-Captiva "adopted" the women of SWFAS six years ago, throwing them
Christmas parties, teaching them crafts and living skills, and furnishing the
home where they stay during recovery.
Now, the group has given SWFAS
$15,000 to establish a learning center where the women can study for their
high-school equivalency degree, or GEDs, research job possibilities and gain
work skills. An occupational therapist will staff it, and Zonta Club members
have pledged to tutor women.
The center officially opens on
Wednesday, but some of the women have already begun dreaming of the
possibilities.
Shannon Morrison, 31, Vickie
Gianfortune, 50, Rita Micco, 44, and Brianne Synder, 20, took a sneak peek at
the new center last week. It features three computers and space for crafts and
other activities.
"I ve been at Waffle House over two
years," Morrison said of her job. "I m just gonna get stuck."
She lives on the SWFAS campus with
her three children. Between work and parenting, going off site to school is
difficult, Morrison said. Now she has resources right at home.
That s exactly what Zonta members
had hoped to offer.
"Of course, the first, easiest jobs
to find are the bottom of the working ladder. Hopefully, this will give them a
hand up," club member Suzanne Weinheimer said. "If you feel like you re having a
career and not just a job, it changes how you feel about yourself."
Gianfortune said the center takes
her a step closer to owning a business. She makes beaded jewelry, and she wants
to take her craft from hobby to livelihood.
Gianfortune had learned beading
while in recovery.
"I didn t know nothing about
anything until I came here," she said.
The women agreed that SWFAS had
unlocked talents they didn t know they have.
"They just get your mind going,"
said Micco, who wants to become a counselor and return to her Native American
reservation in Hollywood, Fla., where addiction is rampant.
The women were thrilled that the
Zonta Club members had taken them under their wing. "These
ladies are truly amazing. They ve done so much," Morrison said. "They have no
idea what they do for the girls here. They re like angels." article
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