Benny K.
Alumnus of 1989
Sunday night the gym bleachers were packed with students all looking down at a tall, tattooed man sitting at the designated speakers’ table. Benny K. hadn’t been to The Family Foundation School in nineteen years. “It’s crazy to see that you all have, you know, two hundred brothers and sisters; I had like fifty at the most here,” Benny announced while telling his story.
Benny arrived at FFS the week of Halloween in 1989, when he was seventeen years old. He was court mandated to the school for as long as needed. His life was completely out of control; he was addicted to heroin and crack, and was constantly getting in trouble with the law.
Enjoying his time at The Family was the last thing he expected, but he learned to have fun in ways he never thought that he could.
During Benny’s stay, his father had a heart attack and he was sent home for two weeks to be with him. After he returned to the school, his father died and his world was turned upside down. Due to legal issues, Benny had to leave the school and go home, this time permanently. He was not prepared for the change and relapsed. For two years he was out using. But he wasn’t happy and he knew he would never be happy again unless he got sober.
Benny now has almost eighteen years clean and sober. He is married and has a five-year- old daughter Rachel. He works as a building engineer and is also a short-story writer and a poet.
“When I got sober, I found the things I really enjoyed doing, and they helped to keep me in the program,” he said.
Benny’s advice to the students of FFS is to find people who will listen to you and to put faith into something other than yourself. He says, “You must be honest so you can actually work through your problems instead of letting them slip by.”
