Category: Resident Stories

Cottage 2 residents will be in for a sweet treat when the figs growing on our own fig tree ripen.

The tree was planted in Spring of 2013 by Brendan, a former resident, who started the tree from a cutting from his father’s fig tree.

Brendan has left his mark on Hopewell with his masonry and horticultural projects that can be seen in the rock planter he designed surrounding the Hopewell sign.

Nearly 40 years after returning home from Vietnam, a Northeast Ohio war hero is finally being recognized for exemplary service to his country.

Mike Erro is receiving six distinguished medals including a Purple Heart and a Vietnam Service Medal with four Bronze Stars. The pinning ceremony is being conducted under the auspices of the Trumbull County Veterans Service Commission.

His long overdue recognition was initiated when U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s office learned of the situation. Laura Pechaitis, a Senior Constituent Advocate in Senator Brown’s Cleveland office, arranged for the special pinning ceremony. The Medal Pinning Ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 22 at 1:00 pm at the Hopewell Therapeutic Farm in Mesopotamia, OH.Trumbull County Veterans Service Commission Director Herman K. Breuer will perform the pinning.

Mr. Erro has been a resident at Hopewell for the past 16 years. He has long battled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Hopewell is a 300-acre residential farm that provides adults with mental illness a place to heal. It is the only therapeutic farm in Ohio.

Mr. Erro was born in Cleveland, OH in 1949. He was inducted into the United States Army in 1967 and was trained as a Light Weapons Infantryman. He served 10 months in Vietnam and was discharged in 1969 with the rank of Specialist 4. He earned six medals in the Army but never received them. He will be presented with the following medals:

• Purple Heart
• National Defense Service Medal
• Combat Infantry Badge
• Vietnam Service Medal with 4 Bronze Starts
• Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon with Device
• Sharpshooter Badge and Auto Rifle Bar and Machine Gun Bar

Says Hopewell’s Executive Director Rick Karges, LISW-S, ACSW, “We’re all very proud of Mr.Erro. He served his country during a very difficult war. Like so many veterans experienced, coming back to the states was a difficult transition. He is very honored to finally be receiving his medals. We took him out to buy a special suit for the ceremony. You could see how happy it made him feel.”

We hope you enjoy these pictures of our Hopewell buildings and grounds. They were taken by our resident who recently purchased her own camera to learn photography. This has always interested her, and considering Hopewell’s beautiful surroundings, what better place to hone her new found skill.

Not only is she interested in photography, she is also a licensed manicurist and will soon be attending Raphael’s School of Beauty to complete her Esthetician License (spa technician) which she began before coming to Hopewell.

She has been at Hopewell for six months, and says she loves the positive environment and believes these new skills will help her once she is on her own living her dream.

Our NEW Hopewell video is LIVE on our website!

View it at: http://www.hopewellcommunity.org/photos-videos.

Thank you to Adrienne, Joel, Lyndon and Jordan for sharing how mental illness has affected your lives, and how Hopewell has helped in journey towards healing and recovery.

A special thank you to Sara, Brian and the team at Second Story Productions for making this project possible, beautiful and fun! With this new addition, we hope to better communicate Hopewell’s mission, and reach more individuals and families who could benefit from Hopewell’s unique program.

Hopewell’s treatment program encourages creative expression through a variety of outlets. Whether it’s creating a cutting board in the woodshop, using a paint brush to illustrate feelings and experiences or expressing thoughts on a piece of paper, Hopewell residents are creative every day.

Recently, a Hopewell resident wrote this poem about Hopewell as a kind of meditation. It is evocative of the peace and beauty we experience on the farm.

Close your eyes and listen to the sound
One
The sound of clouds passing by
Two
Birds soaring high, their song throughout the sky
Three
Wind rustling through the trees
Four
Drip, drip, drip, drip, drop, drip from the gutters to the ground
Five
Your heart beats like the sound of drums or
The soft gallop of horses through meadows
Six
The in, out of your breathing from nose to mouth
Slow and steady
Seven
A beat
Eight
Open your eyes
Nine
Ten
Feel alive

We are so grateful to our creative community, and their willingness to share personal experiences with others.

“Hopewell was the beginning of my recovery,” says Hans, a former Hopewell resident who is now volunteering at the farm for the next year.

Before he first came to Hopewell, eight years ago, Hans was battling mental illness and addiction issues. “By the time I was 18, I was into pretty much everything. I started pulling away from people, especially my family. Then one night, I started hearing voices in my mind.” Hans was diagnosed a few months later with schizophrenia and major depression. From there, his life became “a lot of hospitals, a lot of jails, a lot of homelessness. Drugs consumed me. I tried sobriety but never for very long.”

Then at 26, Hans came to Hopewell after an incarceration. “I will always look at Hopewell as a turning point of healing and hope in my life.” Hans spent four months on the farm. In that time, he became committed to sobriety and a medication regime that brought his symptoms under control. “What helped me most,” he says, “was being somewhere where I was accountable, being in a safe environment and being around people who really reached out to me.”

When Hans left Hopewell, he was a different person: sober, stable, and hopeful about his future. He started working with his father as a carpenter and a few years later bought a home. Hans knew the changes that had occurred within him and his family could see those changes as well. “They saw the growth that took place at Hopewell. My parents have been some of my best advocates on this journey.”

Then last year, restless with his carpentry work, Hans decided he needed to do something different. He started to brainstorm ideas of what he could do and one that persisted was coming back to Hopewell, this time as a volunteer, to give back to the community that had given him so much. Hans was accepted into the year-long volunteer program and moved back to Hopewell last fall.

Hans would like the residents to see from him that “there is hope and there is recovery and there is a new life and a new pathway for people who go through these things. I used to try to just run from it, but now I’ve learned that I have to take life on life’s terms and have hope.”

“I have done more art here, at Hopewell, than I have in the last two years. I felt inspired in a very creative environment.”

That’s how one of our residents feels about her part in Hopewell’s new Farm & Craft Market. At Hopewell, daily work crews – Farm, Kitchen, Grounds, Garden and Cleaning Crews – engage residents in their community and help them identify and build upon their strengths. This winter, the Garden Crew expanded their scope to include creating inventory for the grand opening of the Farm & Craft Market. Complete with fresh eggs, art work, handmade jewelry, and unique bird houses, the crew not only helped stock the store, but many of them learned something about themselves along the way.

One resident said, “During my illness, I lost my artistic legs. At Hopewell, I regained by desire to paint.” Hopewell’s model of care strives to help residents believe in themselves and in recovery. Imagine how wonderful it feels, to “…enjoy producing works of art for the Hopewell Market” but to also see the community believe in your talent in the truest form-by buying them up!