“This is for other people,” Demar told his recovery coach several days after arriving at the Helen Vine Recovery Center.
“Not for me.” His coach asked him to give it his best shot for the next 30 days. Nearly four months later, Demar was
completely transformed. “Helen Vine had become my cornerstone; my family. I didn’t want to leave, but I knew I was
ready.”

Originally from Oakland, Demar moved to Marin as a teenager when he had been getting in a lot of trouble, and his
godparents offered a different environment. Shortly after graduating, Demar focused on working to support his baby girl,
and a dead-end cycle began. “I would work multiple jobs, pay my bills, and party with the rest. Work, drink, use, pay
bills – and repeat. Over and over.”

He became frustrated and felt like there was never enough money. The crowd he was hanging out with became more centered
on drug use and supporting their habits with theft. Demar began finding himself in and out of jail. “Another dead-end
cycle,” he says.

Throughout this period, Demar always remained close with his daughter. At one point, he was talking to her from jail and
she confessed she was embarrassed because classmates knew her daddy was incarcerated. “That was rough,” he said. “I
looked around and knew I didn’t want to be one of the older guys in jail saying to the younger men, ‘don’t end up like
me.’”

“Before my father passed away, he sat me down,” Demar said. “He said to me, ‘as a man, there are certain
responsibilities you have. You have to be active in your child’s life and your community. You’re wasting time.’”

The county offered recovery at Helen Vine. Once he was ‘all-in,’ he attended every meeting and volunteered for every
available job. “I opened my mind to try something different, to try a path that wasn’t a guaranteed dead-end. There is a
saying in AA – ‘Try something new; if you don’t like it, we’ll refund your misery for free.’”

Demar left for a sober living environment (SLE), but rode his bicycle daily to Helen Vine to attend morning recovery
meetings. Soon, he was offered the position of assistant house manager with another SLE. More responsibility came with a
promotion to house manager. At his second job, he went from cook to store manager. He took on the role of secretary for
the large Helen Vine alumni group.

Today, Demar is working towards a career in the recovery field and is a registered drug and alcohol technician. He is
passionate about building into local youth and volunteers regularly with several non-profits. He would like to one day
open a Boys & Girls Club in Marin.

“My roots, my recovery foundation, my grounding – all happened at Helen Vine,” Demar says. “My closest friends were made
here. This is the only recovery program that could have worked for me.”

Since opening in 1999, HVRC has helped more than 22,000 individuals overcome addiction, heal emotional trauma and
develop the tools they need to transform their lives. Clients at HVRC become part of a large, supportive community of
staff, peers and alumni who are dedicated to making their time in treatment, as well as outside of treatment,
successful.