PORT CLINTON – Thanks to Light House Sober Living, 125 men and 50 women have had a safe and supportive environment to begin their sobriety journey. For those dozens of men and women, the Light House men’s house and women’s house became steppingstones to new lives of freedom, purpose and service.
Now, Light House is asking for help to open a third sober living home.
Light House purchased a six-bed home that sits across from its existing Level 2 men’s house. The new home will be a Level 1 recovery house that will serve as the next step to independence for Light House men who have successfully navigated recovery.
The new house, at 507 Fulton St., was once the home of one of Port Clinton’s most somber tragedies. Now, it will be a place of hope.
On Jan. 13, 2020, police discovered the body of 14-year-old Harley Dilly in the chimney of the home, then a shuttered summer residence. Dilly, who died of asphyxiation, had been missing for nearly four weeks. The shocked community mourned the boy who had been the focus of around-the-clock police searches.
Many of the Light House men knew Dilly.
‘Harley was our neighbor’
“Harley was our neighbor, and this house was across the street,” said Light House Sober Living Executive Director Kenn Bower, Jr.
Now Light House hopes to honor the boy’s life by helping men rediscover their own.
“My hope is to refresh the image of this corner of Fulton St.,” Bower said. “Our goal is to remodel the inside and the outside and redo the landscaping. We want to breathe some fresh life and a new story into it.”
By the end of the project, workers will have replaced the roof, knocked down the garage, and completed foundation repairs. They will gut the inside, renovate the upstairs, update the electrical and add another bathroom. Ohler & Holzhauer is donating an HVAC system.
“We’ll have a new furnace and central air for free. Ohler & Holzhauer has done a lot for us,” Bower said. “We plan to add a parking lot, which will help declutter this end of the street, and we’ll create outdoor space for when the men have their kids over or want to play basketball.”
Lighthouse is bringing back its annual Reverse Raffle event on May 4 to help raise funds for the home, and Portage Resale provided funds to replace the home’s roof during its annual grant distribution on Giving Tuesday, Nov. 28.
Bower is hoping more people will help fund the new home project through monetary donations. Light House already purchased the house, so donations will fund the remodeling project. Bower hopes the fundraising campaign will raise $100,000.
‘We provide a very solid, supportive, sober environment’
The donations won’t simply help remodel a home; they will help renew lives.
“We provide a very solid, supportive, sober environment during one of the most pivotal times. The early recovery period is so vulnerable. If you don’t have things just right, it doesn’t happen,” Bower said.
But when it does happen — and it happens often at Light House — men and women in recovery impact the community in a continual trickle effect of service, integrity and hope.
“We help create some really solid people who have lived here, moved out, and stayed connected to the recovery community,” Bower said. “They greatly impact the local recovery community, and the community as a whole.”
Donations to Light House Sober Living can be sent to P.O. Box 24, Port Clinton, OH 43452, or through the donation link at lighthousesoberliving.org.
“This is a great need for men,” Bower said. “We often have to turn people away.”
Contact correspondent Sheri Trusty at [email protected].