Plans are in the works to turn a horse farm in unincorporated Crete into a campus for people on their journey to sobriety.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026 11:54PMPlans are in the works to turn a horse farm in unincorporated Crete into a campus for people on their journey to sobriety.
"Cleaning out stalls and staining wood right now," Nathan Leu said. "It's difficult to change the lifestyle you live for years, you know; it's a learning process. You're learning how to relive your life all over again," Leu said. Leu has been sober for two years.
On the verge of a new beginning, his transformation is a success story the 2nd Story Ranch hopes to replicate.
"Our goal is to help people reach long-term sobriety, and work is just the major dimension of your life that you have to get through to continually be successful," said Jim O'Connor, managing director of the Second Story Foundation. SEE ALSO:"I, myself, am just over 10 years sober, and I had nothing when I came to recovery," O'Connor said. For O'Connor, the mission is personal. And the idea for a recovery program on a farm came from his own experience.
"The first thing they had me do was show up at the barn at seven in the morning on my first day there, and we started shoveling, you know, shoveling out horse stalls. And I spent a year in that program, and the work, the community, the connection, the kindness, but the love that I was given changed my life radically and forever," O'Connor said.
O'Connor plans to build a 7,000-square-foot lodge: a place where residents can live while they work on the farm and work on themselves.
"When I see them hit these life markers that other people take for granted: 'You got your name on a lease? ' That is unbelievable right? " O'Connor said. "We have guys that join unions, getting married, becoming fathers, or becoming better fathers to the children they have.
This is the ball game for us.
" But to get this project over the fence, O'Connor needs more funding. To this point, it's been mostly private donations and money from the Will County Opioid Program. It's a good start toward his $4 million budget goal. In the meantime, O'Connor is using his second chance to provide the same opportunity to others.
"I found myself excited this morning about getting up, coming back out here and doing something productive," James Williams said. Williams is four months sober. He was down on himself and down on his prospects. But with each brush stroke comes an important reminder.
"I'm a little older; I can't work as physically, as fast and hard as everyone else. But I'm still valuable, and I'm still here. I'm still clean. I'm still sober; I'm still alive," Williams said.
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