Where are they now?
Dave C. graduated from Freedom House on January 13, 1990. He recently celebrated eighteen years clean and sober. He is raising his 13 year old son as a single parent. Dave has worked at the Morristown Deli off and on for the past twenty years. Today he is the manager.
Over the years he has given many fellow graduates their first job coming out of “the house”. Every Christmas he collects toys at the deli for The Family Afterward children. He shows up every year for the Golf Classic outing to volunteer and he helps raise a lot of money by selling raffle tickets at the event. Dave’s boss, Mark, the owner of the Deli, said “Dave is dependable and trustworthy but the best thing about him is that everything comes from his heart. He never stops giving.“ Mark said, “I consider Dave family”.
“Freedom House says it reunites families and that is true. I am a father to my son and I am son to my father and mother. But Freedom House has given me several families. I have the Freedom House family, the family at the deli, and the guys I went through the house with, the community of which I am a part of today” said Dave. “In my case I just didn’t get my family back, I GOT FAMILIES!!!
While talking to Dave at the Deli, a steady stream of police and corrections officers including Morris County Sheriff, Ed Rochford came in to pick up a sandwich and joke with Dave. He knows them all by first name and asks about their wives and kids. Later Dave remarked, “Who would have ever thought that some of my best friends are now police and sheriffs officers.” Not bad for a guy who still carries his Essex County Jail ID around as a reminder of what it was like before Freedom House.
Dave said he was standing in the hallway on January 13, 1990 when the Director of the program at the time said “you might be the last graduate ever because we may have to close down in the very near future.” Dave said “it didn’t happen then and I hope it never happens. I intend to do everything in my power to make sure there is never a last graduate”.