The Selma Convention Center was packed Tuesday as the city’s Teen Challenge held its annual banquet. Teen Challenge is an “addiction recovery and Christian discipleship program for men and struggling with life-controlling problems.”

After dinner, those in attendance heard accounts from two graduates of the Selma facility.

Tyler Daffron, who graduated from the program in 2015, detailed how he wound up in Teen Challenge after having a car accident and being arrested. After having problems getting through drug court, Daffron’s judge recommended that he enroll in the program.

“There’s a lot of structure,” Daffron said. “People who’ve been addicted, that’s really what we need. Teen Challenge was really a blessing in my life.”

The experience was initially a challenge for his family, which lives “far away” from Selma, but it proved to be a success.

“Teen Challenge was really my last option,” Daffron said. “By the time I got there, I knew I needed to change.”

Today, Daffron is one semester away from becoming a registered nurse.

“I want to thank the community,” Daffron said. “I always felt so loved here.”

Scott Ridener graduated from the program in 2013 and wound up in Teen Challenge for much the same reasons – he was using drugs by the age of 12, had been in trouble with the law by 16 and had gone to rehab by 21.

“I was at a point in my life where I was desperate,” Ridener said. “Desperate is a good place to be when you go somewhere like Teen Challenge.”

“I’d been hopeless for so long,” Ridener continued, choking back tears. “Just getting a taste of hope, a little bit of hope, meant so much. I had hardened my heart for so long and I hated who I was, I was just so thankful God would give me another chance.”

After completing Teen Challenge, Ridener attended bible college in Dallas, Texas, where he met his wife, and founded a church in North Alabama. Since then, he has preached across the nation and globe and has helped establish “Israel by Greece,” a mission dedicated to serving people in Greece.

“There’s just nobody like the Selma community,” Ridener said. “You can tell people are rooting for you here.”

The keynote speaker for the event was Alabama Teen Challenge Executive Director Ed Wilson, who spoke on the importance of the program’s work and the need for it to expand.

“I believe it’s time for the Selma center of Teen Challenge to grow,” Wilson said. “We don’t want to stop because there are so many people in dire need of the help we can give.”

Wilson talked about the conditions that many of the people who come to Teen Challenge find themselves in – physically hungry from abusing drugs and alcohol and hungry for “spiritual nourishment.”

“When people come to us, it’s as a last-ditch effort,” Wilson said. “They come to us as strangers and we take them in.”