Hunter Shurtleff
Executive Director
I was born in Denver, Colorado on 8/3/1995 he has a beautiful family including his girlfriend Kayla and his two kids Grayson and Avery.
My mom will tell you that I was always a handful growing up, between always causing trouble with the people around me to ultimately falling into drug dealing and addiction. Through all of that I still kept my big heart and care for others around me and I would give the shirt off my back for anyone but as most know you have to be able to help yourself before you help others.
I graduated high school in 2012 and immediately went to college, but after some time I realized that I no longer wanted to be in school and not long after that I got into drug dealing. I got my first drug possession charge in August of 2015, I got diversion for 2 years due to the fact it was my first charge. I was in diversion for about 6 months before getting revoked for non compliance. After that I got transferred over to regular probation in Jefferson County before ultimately getting revoked again, catching another possession charge and getting one last chance in a program called recovery court.
At first, recovery court for me was difficult due to the number one thing being honesty, which I have always struggled with being honest about my addiction due to guilt and shame. It took me awhile to accept the fact that the team on recovery court was there to help me through recovery, not put me in jail. I still couldn’t stop using so I got sent to the halfway house for 3 months before getting out and getting kicked out of two sober livings before ending up at Summit Healing as a last chance effort to keep me out of jail..
I found a home at Summit Healing, I loved the family vibe that surrounded it and the closeness it brought me to others who were like me that could relate to me.I found a brotherhood with these guys and I never wanted to lose that. Not long after I started my journey I started battling some serious depression, anxiety, and wondering if I wanted to continue to be sober. Luckily for me I had other factors keeping me going, for one I had to prove my wonderful Probation officer right. She always believed in me and my recovery and would always have my back and I know I needed to show her she bet on the right horse. Also at that time, I had started seeing my amazing girlfriend Kayla,. Most are told not to date early in recovery and most of the time that’s true but sometimes things happen unexpectedly and I met the girl of my dreams going through recovery and never wanted to let her go. During the times I was really battling some inner demons and wanted to give up, I knew I had her to fall back on, that she would catch me, I also knew in order to keep her using wasn’t an option. With the strength I got from her during that time I pushed through the hard part and started reaping the benefits of being in recovery!
I started going to EMDR trauma therapy to help me deal with some of my traumas, I got a car and got offered a wonderful opportunity to get enrolled in peer recovery coach training. I took that class for 6 months got my peer coach certificate and not long after found out my girlfriend was pregnant with our son Grayson! Not long after that I started working at Summit Healing and quickly progressed to Operations Director before becoming Executive Director.
My life has been filled with ups and downs, I have continued to fight on my journey and never gave up and I have got many blessings because of this. My sobriety, family and my recovery comes first in my life. I am happy to say that I have built stability from recovery and it has continued to bless my life for the better. This program helped save my life and to be in a position to give back to it and hope to make a difference on someone else’s life means everything to me!