CARBONDALE, Pa. — When Just Believe Recovery Center took over the former Marian Community Hospital in Carbondale in 2014, CEO Cindy Bellino shocked her investors when she told them she planned to give away free drug and alcohol treatment for Christmas.
"I'm blessed to be able to do this, and I will continue to do this as long as I'm alive and as long as this disease is out there. I have a feeling it will be around longer than me," Bellino said.
Bellino calls it the "Gift of Life" program.
Twenty patients are given scholarships for a 28-day treatment program.
The center would typically receive between $14,000 and $18,000 from insurance companies for each of those patients.
The people who apply typically don't have insurance or any means to pay for treatment. Just Believe has received dozens of applications on its website already.
The deadline is December 31. Then, Bellino picks 20 recipients.
"They all are begging for the opportunity to live. 'I'm going to die,' you'll hear from the majority of them. 'I'm dying, I'm going to die if I don't get help,'" Bellino added.
Five years ago, it was Robert Lutman making that plea.
"I wound up doing like 40-some days there, at their program for free. When they say it's a gift of life program, that's what it is. It got me to where I'm at today," Lutman told Newswatch 16.
Newswatch 16 talked to Lutman over Zoom from his home in New Jersey, where he now works as an addiction counselor. He's been sober since his stay at Just Believe.
"He's married, he has a child, how much is that worth? I don't have a number on that, OK? But I think it's a lot more than we could possibly put in dollar amounts," Bellino added.
You can apply for a Gift of Life scholarship here.
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