KENAI -- A $10 dollar bill and a backpack.
That's all Forrest Vest had.
It was 2009 and Forrest, then 16 years old, was living out of his car. After he'd run away from home, his only option was to sleep in the car, or on somebody's couch.
"Living out of a car and couch surfing, it wasn't fun," Forrest said. "It was cold, it's literally hell -- you feel like you're alone and at the same time, feel like a loser.
"I had nothing."
However, hitting bottom was the start of Forrest's journey toward a better life.
Soon he would find an existence he was then far away from -- one without drugs, without suffering and without constant heartache in his family.
Just a year later, clean and on the right path, Forrest was awarded the $500 Scholarship of Hope at the 2010 Candlelight Vigil for Homeless Youth in Soldotna.
In keeping with his new outlook on life, Forrest didn't take the money.
Instead, he, along with Debbie and Dave Michael, the organizers of the vigil, created the For Rest Fund that could be used as seed money for a teen shelter in the future. The fund is up to $1,500.
Forrest's hope is someday that pile of money will grow and be put toward helping homeless youths who may be in a situation like the one he pulled through.
At the time, Forrest's parents, Heather and Barry Vest of Soldotna, knew something had to be done to help their son. Countless attempts to get through to him had failed.
Forrest had been homeless for about a month and a half. Meals and showers came from a friend's house. On the nights he did sleep in the car, it was wretched, he said.
"I don't know how to put it into words," Forrest said. "It's cold, it's miserable, really -- you're confined to the back seat. I don't know how to say it; it's just cold and horrible."
On a Friday, Barry picked Forrest up from Kenai Central High School, where he was a junior.
By Sunday, Heather and Barry had decided to send their son to Second Nature, Entrada -- a treatment center in St. George, Utah.
"It was when I realized he won't listen to us, his parents, at all -- we have no voice with him anymore," Heather said.
The next Friday, Forrest was on the plane.
"When you walk through an airport with no shoes on and handcuffs -- people look at you like, 'What's up with this kid?' " Forrest said. "I obviously looked rough, I was coming off stuff, I had been up all night."
For the first month of his treatment, Forrest said he felt animosity toward his parents. His mother went to visit him a week after his 17th birthday and their conversation was what Forrest needed to change his perspective.
"You could be gone by now," Heather told him. "I don't know what you're doing but you could be moved on to your next step and closer to being home.
"You're still here, why not do the best?"
Forrest said most kids in the treatment program reach just the second of four levels and are still allowed to leave at that point.
"Not many people take the time and say, 'OK, I'm going to do this,' " Forrest said. "I wasn't going to; I didn't give a care. People leave on the second level anyway, so I was like, who cares?"
But his mother's words struck a chord and Forrest set a goal to reach the fourth level of treatment.
"Once I set that goal, there was no turning back," he said. "This was how it was going to be."
One of the activities at the center was hiking a mountain, but instead of the counselors encouraging him, they were doing everything in their power to make Forrest quit.
His attitude pushed him to the top of the mountain in the middle of the Utah desert.
"Once I got to the top, I was so tired but I forgot about it," he said. "Because at the top, you look around and I could see everything."
Forrest credits his transformation to the goals he set for himself. Every goal he set for himself, he accomplished.
"I found that once you set those goals, there's nothing you can't do," he said. "It's not like they're impossible to do; you just have to commit and you have to keep it."
His parents, along with his brother, Marshall, picked Forrest up and the family road-tripped to Salt Lake City.
"That week we got along better than we ever have since I was 13, I think," Forrest said. "I was really thankful to have my family back and actually appreciate everything they gave me."
The trip was the change everyone was looking for.
"It was the first peaceful time we had in a while," Heather said. "We could really enjoy our time with Forrest."
Finally being able to see their son brought an end to an emotional few months Barry and Heather endured while he was gone.
"I texted to my family that I sent a boy to the desert and brought him home a man," Barry said with tears in his eyes.
After the vacation was over, Forrest was to spend another six months at a residential treatment center in Salt Lake City, which was similar to a boarding school.
"That was the hardest part, I think," Forrest said. "You see how everything's fine, getting along so well with your family, and then you have to leave them again."
Forrest's story is not uncommon on the Kenai Peninsula.
According to Kelly King, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District homeless liaison, 301 homeless students were enrolled in the KPBSD Students in Transition Program for Homeless Children and Youth during the 2010-2011 school year.
"Each family and student has their own story and their own experience," King said. "The reasons why they're finding themselves in this situation is drastically different from each other."
When Forrest, now 18, looks back at his youth, something is missing, he said.
"I threw everything away," he said. "I regret it now, because I'm a senior and it's like, 'Oh, the things I missed out on, the things I could have done.'"
Forrest was home by October 2010, rehabilitated and with a new outlook on life.
He is moving on and trying to help influence others around him.
After everything he has been through, Forrest wants to be able to help others so they don't make the same decisions he did. His ultimate goal is to become a psychologist.
"I want to help people. I know what that's like --- I've lived it," he said. "I used drugs for four years and so I have the experience to where I think, 'OK, I can help somebody and try to save their life.' "
Barry thinks Forrest's contribution will start a ripple effect throughout the community; he's already seen signs that it has.
"For Forrest, I hope he sees how little actions can have big effects," Barry said. "And it can go in the negative way or the positive way -- it depends on what you do with it."
As King said, there is no one reason why families or students may be homeless. But for those students who have run away, Forrest said it is simply not the answer.
"There's always something better out there," he said. "The support you have from a family, that's more important."
By LOGAN TUTTLE
Peninsula Clarion