Page 200 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2017

HEALTHY LIVING never give up
SOBERING
Todd Trenchard celebrates 20 years of sobriety
TODD TRENCHARD when he was admitted into Home of Grace on September 25, 1997.
It’s easy to look at others and think
we know who they are and where they came from. The truth is, we often see people as they are now without understanding who they were before we knew them.
Across the Coast, many people know the name Todd Trenchard. He is most well-known
as the executive director
of the Bacot McCarty Foundation, a charitable organization that is focused on enhancing lives through youth, education and the arts. Throughout his career, he has been both a successful businessman and community activist,
all after overcoming
addictions to drugs and
alcohol. His story is a true
testament of hope for those
struggling to overcome their own addictions, and the 20-year anniversary of his sobriety is surely something to celebrate.
“Back then I was a hopeless alcoholic who drank continually for over 25 years,” said Trenchard. “I had been reduced to drinking cheap wine or even bottles of spearmint flavored rubbing alcohol. I was dangerous to myself and to anyone I crossed paths with. I didn’t use them to get loaded; I quite simply drank and used drugs to die.”
After years of battling his use of drugs
and alcohol and being taken to 40 different rehab centers — all of which failed to cure
his addictions — Trenchard found himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt with no friends, no family, no transportation and no hope. In a last-ditch effort to save her son, Trenchard’s mother brought him to the Home
of Grace in Vancleave.
“I often say I was brought
to the Home of Grace not
to get sober, but to die. My friends and family had given up on me and everyone, myself included, figured this was just another attempt in what had become an endless squirrel cage of treatment centers,” Trenchard said. “What I didn’t know, or couldn’t know, was that God had His own plan. I just
showed up each day and miracle after miracle started to happen.”
Since becoming sober, Trenchard’s life has changed for the better. “I’m not sure normal people can understand, but I’ve gone from eating out of dumpsters to soaring with the eagles, from homelessness to owning multiple homes and businesses, from total defeat to being able to face just about any obstacle that life can throw at me.”
Thanks to the amazing program at the Home
TODD TRENCHARD today
Home of Grace
14200 Jericho Rd. Vancleave, MS 228.826.5283 www.homeofgrace.org
200 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • September 2017 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net
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