Clients at Stepping Stones offer services for shoveling snow in Mitchell this winter

Taking is easy. Giving back takes work.

During recent snowfalls, residents at Stepping Stones Rehabilitation Center in Mitchell have given back, using snow shovels to clear the walks and driveways of those who can't.

Returning something to the community can be an important and satisfying component of addiction recovery, said Michelle Carpenter, executive director of the Dakota Counseling Institute, which also operates Stepping Stones. The center helps those with drug and alcohol problems.

Janae Oetken, Stepping Stones' clinical supervisor, agrees.

"A lot of the people in our facility have taken and taken and taken. Part of recovery is giving back to people and this is an opportunity to do that," Oetken said. "It makes (our residents) feel good when they give back to people. It lifts their spirits and keeps them busy."

The residents also depend on steady work to help them with recovery, she explained.

Oetken said the poor economy has lessened the number of job opportunities normally available to those working Stepping Stones programs. Recent snows have provided an opportunity to keep clients busy, she said.

During a pre-Christmas snowfall, Oetken asked for volunteers to shovel the walks and driveways of Mitchell homeowners who weren't able to do the job themselves.

At first, volunteers hit the streets with shovels and targeted random neighborhoods for cleanup, said Oetken. The service allowed folks returning home after work to have more time with families, she said. But she also thought a more systematic approach was needed to get the free service to those who needed it most, so Oetken asked Carpenter for permission to advertise the snow-shoveling service on radio.

"We've done it several different times since," said Oetken. "It depends on when the snow flies and who calls."

The program now has about six people who take turns going out. Confidentiality agreements don't allow her to identify those involved or to show their photographs

The homeowners aren't charged for the service, she said, but the outpouring of gratitude for the unexpected service has been palpable.

"People were very gracious," said Carpenter. "One woman had knitted a bagful of stocking caps in different colors and gave them to the volunteers. She told them if they didn't want them they should give them to family members."

Stepping Stones programs run the gamut, said Carpenter, from patients needing initial detoxification to prevention and aftercare programs.

"It might be an adolescent or adult who has had a first alcohol offense, a person who's concerned about their usage who wants an assessment to see where they're at," she said.

Depending on the program, clients might spend as few as three days at Stepping Stones -- the length of a typical short-term detox-- or as long as three months.

"Our typical halfway house client is probably there around three months," said Carpenter. "Some are parolees integrating back into the community, and some are in in-patient treatment."

Intensive treatment is a 30-day program, she explained.

"We also have one that is not as intense, but goes six to eight weeks," she said.

It's not all about just alcohol and drug treatment, said Carpenter.

"We're working on re-integration -- finding them employment, affordable housing and getting all their ducks in a row so they can get back into the community."

The legal sentences of some in the various programs often require some degree of community service work, but not all are required to work. Required or not, said Carpenter, Stepping Stones' believes in helping clients to develop a heart for community service.

"Those are good ethics to be instilled," she said.

Mitchell hasn't had much snowfall since those initial forays into volunteerism, said Carpenter. "But I definitely see us doing it again -- unless wind chills are dangerously cold.

"I don't think anyone minded doing it," Carpenter said. "It think any time that someone can get the opportunity to feel they're doing good for people who don't have it as good as we do, that it's a self-esteem booster for anyone on the road to recovery."

Oetken agreed. Several volunteer shovelers returned home tired and satisfied, but quickly offered to go out again if they were needed.

One key to a happy, healthy and productive life is simply getting active, she said.

"Staring at the TV gives us nothing," said Carpenter.

For more information on the Stepping Stones snow-clearing program, call 995-8180.