Couple rising to challenge of helping teens get clean.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - As a youth pastor in Lebanon, Ore., for eight years, Greg Pitts tried to connect with teens as best he could. He watched many of them grow up from elementary to high school, and even officiated at three of their weddings.

"But I also saw a huge number of them turn to alcohol and drugs and drop out of school," he says. "Working with them for one hour every Wednesday night was just not enough."

Today, Pitts is hard at work realizing a dream - creating a residential treatment center where drug-addicted teens can spend a full year in search of sobriety, support and self-confidence, 24 hours a day.

The boarding school that Pitts has in mind, however, would not follow the traditional "medical model" that views alcoholism and drug addiction as a disease. Instead, Pitts foresees a Northwest Adolescent Boys' Center that views addiction as a surmountable sin.

Toward that end, Pitts and his wife, LeAnna, have opened the Teen Challenge Thrift Store, a 4,400-square-foot space just off Springfield's Mohawk Boulevard next to Bi-Mart. The store, established as a fundraiser for Teen Challenge operations, eventually will serve as a workplace for many of the 20 to 40 youths that the Pittses hope will be enrolled in the state-licensed center.

Teen Challenge already operates 185 residential treatment centers in the United States and 370 others around the world. Despite the "teen" in its name, however, most of those centers are oriented toward adults. The Pacific Northwest, for example, has 10 Teen Challenge treatment centers, but none for teens.

Greg Pitts, 35, says he gets two to three calls a week from frantic relatives asking about getting a young, drug-addled family member into treatment. "We refer them to our juvenile centers in Minnesota or New Mexico or Florida," he says. "Our nearest one is in west Nevada, but it's always full."

The juvenile centers charge tuition - typically $1,000 to $2,000 a month - and expect residents to take part in thrift store or other work, but pride themselves on not turning anyone away for lack of funds, Pitts says.

Nationally, Teen Challenge has won both praise and criticism for its faith-based approach to overcoming addiction. More than 2,000 people - nearly half of whom have been ordered by a court to attend - graduate from the network's one-year residential recovery programs each year.

Teen Challenge supporters include President Bush and, closer to home, retired Springfield police Chief Bill DeForrest, who said in a letter to Pitts that he has no confidence "in traditional government and most private rehabilitation programs."

By contrast, DeForrest said he met several Teen Challenge graduates at an Arizona church and came away impressed with their sincerity and their "physical, emotional and spiritual health."

Greg Pitts said he grew up among family members who abused methamphetamine, including one relative who was a dealer. He says he is convinced that the Teen Challenge model works because of the duration of its residency and because of its unapologetic message that a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is key to overcoming addiction.

"We can't force someone to believe - that would be silly," he says. "We're just doing what we're doing, and we see this pendulum swing in people's lives."

Teen Challenge claims success rates of between 65 percent and 85 percent, citing studies conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and others. The studies are small and dated, however, and the organization is conducting a new, nationwide survey.

Teen Challenge was established in 1958 by Pastor David Wilkerson, the author of "The Cross and the Switchblade." The 1962 best-seller, which recounts Wilkerson's work with young New York drug addicts, has sold more than 50 million copies and was made into a movie.

Based in Springfield, Mo., Teen Challenge USA is led by Mike Hodges - LeAnna Pitts' father. LeAnna Pitts, who serves as the local thrift store's manager, says her father is the one who challenged her and her husband to open the first Teen Challenge teen treatment center in Oregon.

They say they are actively looking at potential sites, in Cottage Grove and elsewhere, and are confident of securing property within the next six months. Teen Challenge's regional office in Lebanon has offered to put up an undisclosed sum to help buy the property, they say.

In the meantime, they keep busy with the thrift store, sorting, pricing and selling donated goods - and correcting the misimpressions of shoppers who wrongly assume that the store is either run by teens or offers wares oriented toward teens.

They are assisted by multiple volunteers and five part-time employees - including Greg Pitts' nephew, Kyle Pitts. Out of jail after serving a sentence for driving under the influence, Kyle Pitts, 23, is a Teen Challenge graduate now enrolled at Eugene Bible College. He also is a husband - he and his wife met at a Teen Challenge thrift store in Tillamook - and father to a 6-month-old daughter.

Kyle Pitts says he likes the feeling of giving back by helping out at the store. "I feel I owe a big part of my life to Teen Challenge," he says. "For one thing, I wouldn't have this wife or daughter, which I appreciate a lot."

TEEN CHALLENGE Thrift store: 1489 Mohawk Blvd., Springfield, next to Bi-Mart. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday. Donations accepted during store hours. 726-5454 Treatment center: Donation of funds can be dropped off at thrift store or mailed to Northwest Adolescent Boys' Program, P.O. Box 70172, Eugene, OR 97401 Informational booth: Look for it from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday in front of Market of Choice, 1060 Green Acres Road, Eugene More information: Call 726-5454; send e-mail to [e-mail]; visit www.nwaboyscenter.com or www.teenchallenge.com