High Watch annual fundraiser is Sept. 7

KENT —The oldest 12-step based substance abuse treatment facility in the world celebrates its 68th anniversary this year, and celebrates its successful sister facility in Russia. High Watch Recovery Center (formerly High Watch Farm), nestled in the Kent hills, was founded in 1940 with the help of Etheldred Folsom, known as Sister Francis, on her 200-acre farm in Kent.

“She had bought the book, ‘Alcoholics Anonymous,’ by Bill Wilson, which had recently been published,� explained Janina Kean, who has been president and CEO of High Watch since 1998. “And she saw similarities between AA and something called the New Thought movement that she was teaching.�

She invited AA founder Wilson to her farm, along with Marty Mann, whom Kean said was a Greenwich socialite, and the first woman to get sober with the help of the 12-step AA program.

In a taped speech made at the 25th anniversary of High Watch, Mann was the guest speaker, and she recalled the intense energy that seemed to permeate the air as she and Wilson stepped out of their car. There was an immediate sense of understanding between Sister Francis and the AA group, and she offered them the gift of her property. AA couldn’t accept the land, said Kean. The group’s primary purpose was to help people with their addiction, not to be involved with managing money or property. But a nonprofit was created and High Watch was born.

Until 1998, Kean said, the facility was run by AA members with “long-term sobriety.�

“At that time it was purely a 12-step program,� Kean said. But she came to the facility with a nursing background, and she felt that it was important to expand and begin to work on some of the medical causes that contribute to substance abuse.

“Addicts are medically complicated,� she said. There are often problems with other systems of the body, some of them caused by the abuse. And many of the residents at the facility had what is called a co-occurence of depression and anxiety.

“Over the years I’ve taken the 12 steps that were the core of the program here and blended them into the treatment of the neurobiology of addiction along with the treatment of co-occuring disorders,â€� she explained. “You’ll come here and learn the 12-step program. But you’ll also work with psychiatrists, social workers and other medical professionals.  We also try to involve the family in the patient’s treatment.â€�

Kean takes enormous pride in the fact that High Watch can treat its residents at $240 a day, a fraction of the $600 to $1,000 a  day that some other treatment facilities charge. The organization operates on a $3.8 million budget. It is licensed for 78 residents and is always full. People come from all over the world, she said, to get help at High Watch (which Kean said is also called the Hill of Hope).

“A woman was here recently from Rome,� Kean said, “and I asked her, ‘Why the United States? Why High Watch?’ And she said, ‘We all know in AA that if you want to get sober in AA, go to where it started, at High Watch.’�

Kean said that the treatment of substance abusers in many foreign countries is deplorable. She recently made a professional visit to “the opiate triangle of the world,� the Yunan Province in China.

“I was there to introduce the 12-step program to the government and to physicians there,� she said. “And what they wanted me to talk about was humanity in treatment. Twenty years ago, they used to tell an addict he had a year to get better. If he didn’t, they’d shoot him.�

Things aren’t much better in most of Russia, where addicts are sent to insane asylums, given drugs that make them vomit up the alcohol from their systems and forced to work at factories to earn their keep.

The High Watch-style facility in St. Petersburg uses the same approach for treatment as the High Watch in  Kent.The facility was started with the support of Louis Bantle, who is vice chairman of the High Watch board and was the chairman and CEO of U.S. Tobacco. A Russian physician had heard of the remarkably high number of U.S. Tobacco employees, and their family members, who had helped kick addictions. He approached Bantle and in 1996 they made plans for the Russian House of Hope.

Bantle and his wife, Gini, are the guests of honors at this weekend’s annual High Watch fundraising picnic. Another honored guest will be Russian artist Dmitry Shagin, a High Watch alumni. His art work will be displayed and he has designed invitations and T-shirts for the event.

The picnic will be this Sunday, Sept. 7, from noon to 5 p.m. at High Watch, 62 Carter Road (parking and a shuttle are available from Kent Falls on Route 7). Tickets are $25 per person; they’re available at the door or by calling 860-927-5345.

Latest News

Nuvance hospital system to merge with Northwell Health

Sharon Hospital would become part of a larger regional health systems with 28 hospitals.

Yehyun Kim/CTMirror.org

Nuvance Health, which owns four hospitals in Connecticut and three in New York, will merge with Northwell Health to form a larger regional health system across two states.

Together, the companies will own 28 hospitals and more than 1,000 sites of care and employ 14,500 providers.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Creators: An interview with filmmaker Keith Boynton

Keith Boynton, left, with Aitor Mendilibar, right, the cinematographer who shot “The Haunted Forest” as well as “The Scottish Play” and “The Winter House.” In the background of is Vinny Castellini, first assistant director.

Submitted

Keith Boynton is a filmmaker who grew up in Salisbury, Connecticut. He attended Salisbury Central School, Town Hill School, and Hotchkiss. He has made numerous feature films including Seven Lovers, The Scottish Play, The Winter House, and is just wrapping up a new film, The Haunted Forest, which is a horror/slasher movie. Boynton has made numerous music videos for the band Darlingside, and for Alison Krauss. He is a poet, a playwright, and comic book art collector.

JA: This series of stories The Creators focuses on artists, their inspiration, and their creative process. Keith, what was the seed that got you started?

Keep ReadingShow less
Millerton director is an Oscar nominee

Arlo Washington in a film still from the Oscar-nominated short "The Barber of Little Rock."

Story Syndicate

John Hoffman, a Millerton resident, has been nominated for his film “The Barber of Little Rock,” which he co-directed with Christine Turner, in the Best Documentary Short Film category at the upcoming 96th Academy Awards.

Distributed by The New Yorker and produced by Story Syndicate Production in association with 59th & Prairie, Better World Projects, and Peralta Pictures, “The Barber of Little Rock” explores the efforts of Arkansas local hero Arlo Washington, who opened a barbershop at 19 years old and, with a mission to close the racial inequality gap in his community, went on to found the Washington Barber College as well as People Trust Community Federal Credit Union. Washington’s goal is aiding his primarily Black neighborhood, which has historically been underserved by more prominent banking institutions.

Keep ReadingShow less
Inside Troutbeck's kitchen

Chef Vincent Gilberti

Courtesy of Troutbeck

About growing up in Carmel, New York, Troutbeck’s executive chef Vincent Gilberti said he was fortunate to have a lot of family close by, and time together was always centered around food.

His grandparents in White Plains always made sure to have a supply of cured meats, olives, cheeses and crusty bread during their weekend visits. But it wasn’t until his family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, when he was 16 that his passion for food really began. It was there that he joined the German Club, whose partnership with Johnson & Wales University first introduced him to cooking.

Keep ReadingShow less