At the parking lot across from the Wells Fargo bank at University Place, Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers (TROSA) is holding its annual Christmas Tree sale to raise money for their organization and provide wholesome experiences for previous drug abusers.
TROSA, centered around the motto “we help substance abusers become healthy, productive members of their communities and families,” has numerous programs designed to promote its purpose around the Triangle.
Besides its annual tree selling, TROSA offers services such as Lawn Care, Moving and Storage and a Thrift and Frame shop, all operated and owned by TROSA participators and volunteers.
All of the current patients at TROSA live and work out of the organization’s main campus in Durham, which features many services for the participants.
“I look at everything, day in and day out, and it is so perfect right now that I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t change my past. I wouldn’t change the experiences that I had. This is how I had to get here. I’m just glad I got here,” a current patient at TROSA said.
Unlike the other services offered by TROSA, which are year-round programs, the tree lots are only available from mid-November to Christmas. Trees are grown on local farms and sold by program participants at select locations in the Triangle.
“We believe here at TROSA that the services matter just as much to the patients as our rehabilitation programs do,” Elisha McLawhorn, Assistant to the Director of Business Operations at TROSA, said. “Not only do they provide for the community, but they allow our participants to have clean, wholesome experiences in society.”
The organization has received recognition from Duke University Medical Center for their success in rehabilitation and therapy.
“I am a graduate and staff member. The TROSA program was a safe haven for me, giving me structure and accountability. I am the happiest right now than I have ever been in my whole life,” McLawhorn, who since her graduation has become a top executive in the organization, said.
The tree lots run by TROSA, with the motto “buy a tree, save a life,” will trim, bag and load their trees onto customers’ cars, in order to “provide the best of services for the community,” according to the TROSA website.
Founded in 1994 by current President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin McDonald, TROSA began out of a lease of $18 per year in the Old North Durham Elementary School on a budget of $18,000. Since then, the facility has been rebuilt in a new location as the William Mack Sr. Center, dedicated to the TROSA graduate who began and ran many of the programs still in action today.
In 2011, TROSA rebuilt their campus on a 13-acre plot, incorporating all of the offices under one roof. TROSA plans to expand in the future to another location in North Carolina, to have similar proportions and community involvement as the current facility.
“The goal here at TROSA is to provide services for the community while also helping previous drug abusers rise above their pasts,” Lisa Finlay, winner of the 2016 Addiction Professionals Outstanding Clinicians award, said. Finlay has been a clinician at the Durham facility for TROSA since 2014.
