MOBILE — Addicts and alcoholics often remark that when they abused substances they had a “God-sized hole.” Using drugs and alcohol can fill an addict or alcoholic with self-centered fear as they bottom out, often disillusioned with God in the depths of despair.

Those harsh times, marked by a disconnection with a higher power, were the themes of four testimonials from former clients and friends of The Shoulder at its Freedom Luncheon Friday at the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel in Mobile.

Organizers said the luncheon raised an estimated $19,000 that will help cover administrative and personnel costs.

The guest speakers, Foncie and Joe Bullard, both recovering addicts and alcoholics, shared personal stories of their battles with alcohol and drugs and how The Shoulder provided a spiritual foundation for their recovery.

Michael Hall and David Carpenter, graduates of The Shoulder’s treatment program, gave testimonials as to how the facility helped free them of their active addictions so they could pursue meaningful lives.

Foncie, who began her spiritual journey at The Shoulder, cited a strong personal connection to a higher power and a loving relationship with her husband, as reasons she has stayed clean.

Her story, like those of many alcoholics, began in a dysfunctional home, where her mother’s drinking became a disruption.

She said she became aware of her mother’s ills when she was in the fifth grade. Foncie remembers feeling confused and afraid, “but back then, the tools of recovery were not available.” The Alcoholics Anonymous program was founded in the 1930s but it did not become a popular method of treating alcoholism until the early 1970s; Narcotics Anonymous was founded later that decade.

Foncie recalled her using-days with her husband and how their drinking impacted their lives.

“What Joe and I had gotten good at was living comfortably in misery,” she said.

She remembered her first spiritual awakening, in which she still wears a pendant of a trailer truck to remind herself of that night. While searching for the beach amid a drunken stupor, Foncie turned down a street in Malbis and found herself stuck in a freshly-laid roadway.

Stranded, hopeless and tired, she had hit a bottom and could take no more.

Foncie relinquished control of her will to a higher power, whom she called Jesus Christ, and prayed for help.

That night, someone—or something—was listening.

“A tow truck showed up out of nowhere,” she said. “Within one minute of my giving up, I was out of the mud.”

Foncie’s epiphany led a spiritual transformation that allowed her to forgive her mother and herself for their problems with alcohol.

Joe Bullard, president of the Bullard Automotive Group of Mobile, had also abused alcohol for years.

He cited The Shoulder’s efforts with his wife as inspiring him to be his family’s spiritual leader.

“If you’re reaching for something to try and fill that hole, the only thing that filled that hole for me was Jesus Christ,” he said. “I don’t need things or circumstances to make me happy.”

He added that his spiritual relationship with a higher power has brought him freedom and joy.

“I want to be able to hear God whisper into my ear,” he said.

Hall, who works at the facility as an assistant, also shared his story.

“I shouldn’t be hear standing talking to you,” he said, referring to how his using had him facing serious jail time. “But I was given a second chance at life and I took it.”

After completing The Shoulder’s outpatient program, he was offered a job at the center as a night-time attendant.

His duties include making sandwiches for clients’ lunches, performing security rounds at night and providing counsel to clients early in their recovery.

“I wanted to be a part of the program that helped me so much,” he said.

Carpenter, a patient at the The Shoulder from 2003-04, is another success story who spoke at the luncheon.

“I had no idea what was in store for me,” he said, referring to his first impression of the facility.

Young and uneducated about the disease of addiction, Carpenter felt like he would breeze through The Shoulder’s program and then go right back to his old ways.

“I didn’t even know I was an addict,” he said. “The Shoulder gave me a foundation for a new way of life.”

Carpenter, who studies architectural engineering at the University of New Orleans, recently celebrated his fifth year of sobriety.

About The Shoulder

The Shoulder is a private, non-profit substance abuse treatment center that incorporates the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, cognitive behavioral therapy and Christ-centered spirituality.

The program, which treats men ages 18 and older, includes living onsite for a minimum of two months; individual, group and family therapy sessions; life skills; and spiritual groups.

Upon completing the initial program, clients are recommended to participate in The Shoulder’s year-long aftercare program which meets weekly for support groups.

Clients are required to work while completing their therapy program.

The Shoulder was founded in 1988 by physicians and community leaders who recognized the need for a substance-abuse treatment center in south Alabama that would serve those with low or no income.

The founding physicians raised funds from the community and purchased an abandoned hotel near Spanish Fort.

The facility operated on Battleship Parkway from its opening until 2005, when Hurricane Katrina destroyed the 38,000-square-foot building.

After the wreckage, staff and volunteers began renovating a partially-abandoned, state-owned building in Daphne. The facility re-opened to clients in October 2005 in the borrowed facility, where it currently operates.

This fall, The Shoulder will begin construction on a new facility, to be built on a six-acre property next to the center’s current building.