Goodbye to Brandy’s

Barbara Diamond

Brandy Balsiger Post was bright, handsome and athletic, the apple of

his parents’ eyes.

Drugs and alcohol abuse were the last thing on their minds.

Until Brandy died.

Cocaine killed him. He was 21.

“There were signs,” Cheryl Post said. “We just didn’t see them. We

thought we were good parents. We though we were doing all the right

things.”

Sometimes loving eyes are blind when clearer vision is needed.

Carlton and Cheryl Post dealt with their grief by founding

Brandy’s Friends, a counseling center for young people at risk from

substance abuse and their families.

The center opened in 1992. It will close at the end of March.

“When our son Brandy died in 1991, my wife, Cheryl, and I felt a

strong calling to create a mission that would give both meaning and

value to his life, as well as protect as many young people and their

families as possible from the pain and heartbreak we had suffered,”

Carl Post said. “Cheryl and I feel in our hearts that our mission is

now completed.”

The decision to close was made in December. The center stopped

accepting new clients in January.

“Ten is a good number,” Cheryl Post said.

In the past decade, Cheryl Post estimates the center has served

thousands of young people and their families. Every salvation is a

triumph. The loss of every young person rends her heart, reopening a

wound that will never heal, bringing hot tears to her warm brown

eyes.

“You cry,” she said. “You cry a lot.”

Disneyland Resorts honored the center for its community service in

2002 with a substantial grant. The center had received grants from

Pacific Life Foundation, Wells Fargo Bank Foundation, Mead, Witter

Foundation, U.S. Bank and the City of Laguna Beach. Laguna

Presbyterian Church has made grants and contributed a monthly sum.

The city and state honored Cheryl Post in 1998, the same year she

was named the Laguna Beach Woman’s Club Woman of the Year.

“She is my hero,” then-Mayor Steven Dicterow said.

The Laguna Beach branch of the American Assn. of University Women

recognized Cheryl Post in 2000 for her leadership in community

service. The Volunteer Center of Orange County has presented her

three times with the Spirit of Volunteerism Award, and the Orange

County chapter of the National Society of Fund-raisers has honored

her three times.

Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties honored

both Posts for their on-going community service.

“I am sorry to hear Brandy’s Friends is closing, especially since

two [Laguna Beach] kids died recently in alcohol-related deaths,”

Laguna Beach resident Chris Loidolt said.

Loidolt turned to Brandy’s Friends when her middle son was at

risk, after the unexpected death of his father in 1997.

“They saved my life and my relationship with my mother,” Travis

Loidolt, 21, said. “They were there for me and for others. It was a

great help that they were part of the school program. I don’t know if

there are any other programs specifically for teens and their

families.”

Cheryl Post has served as executive director since the center

doors opened. Carl Post and his company put up about $500,000 to get

it started.

“My requests for his financial contributions have been reduced as

other donors began contributing,” Cheryl Post said.

The annual budget, for professional and clerical staff, programs

and center overhead, is about $180,000.

“We are a nonprofit agency in the truest sense,” said Cheryl Post,

who has never taken a nickel in salary.

Center programs included individual and family counseling

services, an intensive 90-day outpatient treatment, youth sports

diversion and inpatient services

The outpatient program was approved by many insurance companies

and got referrals from juvenile courts, probation departments and

county agencies.

The center regularly participated in the Laguna Beach Unified

School District anti-drug and alcohol programs, such as “Red Ribbon

Week,” and also made presentations at parent education meetings.

“Our original goal was to provide programs for families in Laguna

Beach,” she said. “However, as time passed, school districts outside

Laguna began using us. At the last count, staff and graduate clients

were speaking at 28 schools.

“Ironically, in the last two or three years, 90 percent of our

client base was referred to us from districts outside of Laguna.”

At one time, Laguna Beach students suspended for drug, alcohol or

related behavior were sent to the center for a week of education and

intervention in a supervised environment. No trips to Palm Springs

for those kids to while away their suspension, as had happened in

Laguna in the past. The school district eventually developed an

on-campus program; other districts continued to rely on the center.

A program that allows student athletes involved with drugs or

alcohol to continue competing also began in Laguna and expanded to

include other districts.

“Removing an adolescent from sports is counter-productive,

allowing more time and opportunity to become involved in drugs and

alcohol,” Cheryl Post said. “Self-esteem is also negatively affected

when the youth loses his or her special interests.”

Recovery is a family issue, according to the center. Counseling,

education and support were provided for all the family members and

significant others.

Clients worked in groups, with their families and individually to

learn ways to change their lifestyles. They developed new behaviors

and coping skills to successfully integrate themselves back into the

family, school, employment and community.

Intervention was provided for clients with dual diagnoses.

Brandy’s Friends referred clients to sober living homes, worked with

hospitals that provided detox programs and provided care for all

Brandy’s Friends graduates.

“The comprehensive outpatient programs and services provided by

our caring staff of professionals has literally saved lives and

reunited families torn apart by substance abuse,” Carl Post said.

“Through our educational programs, Brandy’s message has reached over

50,000 students throughout our area.”

Families enrolled in the center’s final 90-day program will

graduate at the end of March. Folks in need of help are being

referred to the Hope Institute in Costa Mesa.

“We are finishing our mission on a high note,” Cheryl Post said.

“For more than half of my life, I have been a wife and a mother. For

the year after Brandy died, I was in the black hole of depression.

And for the past 10 years, I have been involved with the center. This

is an open door.”

Longtime center board member Anne Johnson described the commitment

of the Posts as above and beyond what anyone should expect.

“It wasn’t just money. They gave of themselves,” Johnson said. “It

was a work of heart for her.”

The City Council will make a proclamation at the April 15 meeting

honoring the Posts’ contributions to Laguna Beach.