When students arrived in the main gym on Thursday, they heard the true-life story of a local Marin woman’s fall into addiction, and her family’s struggle to return to a normal life. The assembly was sponsored by Friday Night Live, a club that strives to offer teens alternative activities to binge drinking and drug use.

Daughter Kristina Wandzilak and mother Constance Curry, authors of The Lost Years: Surviving a Mother and Daughter’s Worst Nightmare, spoke to students in the gym last Thursday, March 21, about the dangers of drug use as well as about their personal experiences with drugs and recovery. Wandzilak is now a interventionist and founder of Full Circle Intervention, a program designed to help people with issues including chemical addiction, alcohol addiction, depression, Internet and gambling addiction, and various other types of addictions. She is also the talent and host of Addicted, a Discovery Channel Fit and Health series that follows people trying to end their addiction.

Wandzilak and Curry first spoke at Redwood on Feb. 26 at a parent education night, in which the two talked about the prevalence of teen drug and alcohol abuse. The event was so popular that the school administration had to move it from the small gym to the main gym to accommodate the over 700 people who bought tickets.

In their second assembly on March 21, Wandzilak and Curry warned students about the dangers of drug addiction. Wandzilak told her story of addiction and recovery, while her mother spoke of what it was like to watch her daughter spiral toward addiction. The two women now work to bring respectful interventions to families dealing with addiction.

Wandzilak became addicted to alcohol, methamphetamines and other drugs at age 17. Throughout her addiction, Wandzilak had trouble retaining a job and took to robbing homes. Over the course of her addiction, Wandzilak invaded 22 homes to steal money and other materials to sell.

To combat her daughter’s addiction, Curry sent Wandzilak to three different treatment facilities. However, Wandzilak managed to escape from all three facilities before she turned 18, and became homeless after her mother kicked her out of their house.

After getting arrested for being drunk and disorderly when she tried to kill herself by jumping into traffic, Wandzilak had an epiphany in her prison cell.

“I was overcome with regret, I called my mom and told her I was ready to get help and treatment,” Wandzilak said.  She turned her life around and became sober at age 21 after successfully completing six months of rehab treatment, and has remained sober for almost 20 years since.

The different approach to drug addiction provoked more serious thinking from some students. Sophomore Alex Grant said the assembly made him think more about drug abuse and its effects.

“I thought that the assembly was interesting, and a good story,” he said.“It helped us remind ourselves about the dangers of drugs and alcohol can be. It was a personal story, but at the same time they were very open about it. I think it will make people think before they use because they know the effects it can have on someone’s life.”

However, Griffin Blum, sophomore, said that he didn’t think the assembly was going to change the minds of anyone who was abusing drugs.

“I thought it was pretty meaningless,” he said. “The point of those assemblies is to get people who are currently using drugs to stop. But if you are someone who is using, you are probably in denial about your usage anyway.”