Mitchell Croy’s initiation into the dark world of drug and alcohol addition came at the tender age of 10. Mitchell remembers that day quite well because it was November 22, 1963, the day that President John F. Kennedy, Jr. was assassinated.

“I got home from school and my step dad was already high. He handed me a beer and encouraged me to drink up."

Eventually, drinking simply wasn’t enough for Mitchell, so he began to smoke marijuana. Mitchell joined the Marine Corps in 1970 in hopes that the discipline and structure would help him get clean. But he couldn’t shake his drug and alcohol addictions and was busted on drug charges that ended his military career.

Roughly the next 25 years of Mitchell’s life were spent in and out of prison on various charges stemming from his drug and alcohol additions.

Mitchell voluntarily checked himself into The Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) as part of a sentencing agreement with the court system. He recently celebrated a full year of sobriety and has a new job as the head cook at the ARC.