Jean White, a 1998 Quehanna Boot Camp Honor Graduate, returned to QBC on Nov. 22 to offer words of encouragement to current Boot Camp teammates. White has been sober for 20 years and attributes her success to AA meetings, surrendering to God and to the Boot Camp program.
In her speech, she told inmates that she does not know where she would be today if she had not been given the opportunity to participate in the Boot Camp program. She said that she remembers everything she learned while at QBC. She continues to attend AA meetings, PT's, writes in her journal and makes a gratitude list at night.
After graduating from Quehanna, she felt as if her life was over and she had no hope. She paroled to her mother's house and got a job in a deli. She began drinking and felt that she had control over her alcohol use. She quickly found out that she did not. She said that the best thing she did was to tell her Parole Officer the truth and admitted to needing help and went to rehab.
After rehab, she moved to Allentown, where she knew no one. She got a job as a telemarketer and enrolled in business school. She also decided to begin listening to others who knew how to live sober, and her life began to get better. She was able to buy a car and wanted to further her education, so she enrolled in college and earned a degree in chemistry. She continued to want to do better and then began to do better and was able to purchase her own home.
She feels that with God, prayer and fellowship, anybody can do anything. She encouraged the listeners to go to meetings and said that if they take care of their bodies, their minds will follow. She finished by saying, "Always give back what somebody gave you."