Sean Baxendale is in the kitchen at Maple Leaf Flats in Charlevoix, a former motel along U.S. 31. It’s a sober living house now.
Snow is falling outside. Standing where some tourists might have had their morning coffees a few years ago, Sean makes himself a cup of earl gray tea.
"Like Captain Picard," he jokes, referencing the Star Trek character who orders hot tea from his replicator robot.
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Baxendale is captain of a different ship.
He's the program director and recovery coach here at Maple Leaf Flats, which is owned by wood manufacturing company Manthei Wood Products. This sober living house is just for Manthei employees — an experiment the company started 18 months ago to provide stability for staff they hire directly out of inpatient rehab programs.
There’s a constant flow of people leaving rehab in northern Michigan, and many don’t want to return to where they were living before. But finding work is tough: many people face an uphill battle with gaps in their employment history, debt and the stigma associated with substance use.
But for Manthei Wood Products, providing this sober living house is a win-win. It’s helped them staff up after years of struggling to find workers. They say the program has so far been successful at helping people stay sober and keep their jobs.
And they think other companies could make it work too.
“They can come to me”
Baxendale struggled with alcohol addiction himself for many years. In 2017, he was living downstate in Jackson, Mich. where he wound up in court for a DUI. The judge sent him to rehab, instead of to jail.
“They put me in a car and took me four and a half hours to Petoskey, Michigan," he said.
After finishing rehab, Baxendale didn’t want to go back to Jackson and fall into the same situation. He started leading AA meetings in the area and got a couple jobs in contracting, eventually landing at Manthei Wood Products making veneers for doors, kitchen cabinets and guitars.
In 2024, when Manthei got the idea to start a sober living house specifically for employees in addiction recovery, they tapped Baxendale to be the recovery coach.
The job keeps him busy. Baxendale constantly fields calls from residents at the house who need coaching.
“There’s helping you get your license back, there's helping you buy a car, there's helping you even open a bank account,” Baxendale said.
The program includes a mandatory weekly breakfast on Sundays, where Baxendale cooks for the group and they talk about work, life and recovery.
He interviews each person before they join the program.
“You have to show me humility and that you're fighting for it,” Baxendale said. “You have to have a drive in you to stay clean and sober and make your life better than what it was.”
But even in the hardest moments, like if residents relapse or come close to relapsing, “they know they can come to me,” Baxendale said, “and not be fired or kicked out.”
Instead, he says he works with people on plans for more treatment, drug tests or therapy.
Program grew out of kitchen cabinet demand
The idea for the sober house for Manthei employees actually started after the pandemic, said Abe Manthei, one of the owners of the Petoskey-based company.
“Everyone in America wanted a new kitchen,” Manthei said. “There was unlimited demand for cabinets,” one of Manthei's main products.
So Manthei needed more staff, and people leaving rehab needed jobs. They company started posting job applications in rehab centers around town.
People were taking the jobs, but Manthei learned that many needed housing, and sometimes, help staying sober.
“What people in recovery are looking for ... it's like a three-legged stool: It's a job, a house and accountability,” he said. “An employer is the only place that can provide a job, a house and accountability together."
Peggy Swarbrick, a professor at Rutgers University who studies addiction recovery, has found similar results in her research.
Swarbrick said that for people re-entering daily life sober, “employment — having a purposeful, meaningful structure to your day — is essential for someone in that transitioning.”
She said the first job out of rehab can be an important stepping stone.
"You build confidence. Maybe you do it six months, you do it a year, and then you might move on, or you may stay."
At Maple Leaf Flats, every resident has an individual entrance to their unit and each room is set up with a kitchenette and bathroom.
There are some added quirks: $100 per month of each person's rent, for example, goes into a savings account they can use to pay for the first month's rent on an apartment if they eventually choose to move out.
Manthei thinks other workplaces here in northern Michigan could come together and run a house like this, too, if they have the right recovery coach.
“It takes a coach,” said Manthei. “It takes 'a Sean' who knows what they’re doing.”
‘It's like my little family here.’
Stephanie Koste was one of the first Manthei staff members to go through the program.
She left rehab at Bear River in Gaylord about a year and a half ago. Before checking herself into the program, she was addicted to heroin and meth for 10 years while living in Battle Creek.
“ I lost my kids, I lost my house. I lost everything,” Koste said.
Like Baxendale, Koste wanted to stay up north and rebuild her life here.
Her aunt was a longtime employee at Manthei and knew that the company hired people in recovery. She suggested Koste put in an application. Koste has worked at Manthei ever since and now operates her own station working as a grader.
She lived at Maple Leaf Flats for about a year, but a few months ago, Koste got married and moved into her own house. It's just down the road from Baxendale and the others. She still comes by each week to help Baxendale with some of the cooking and tasks around the house.
“ I'm not sure how much further away I would've wanted to get. This is still my safe zone,” she said. “It's like my little family here.”
Koste lost touch with her mother throughout the course of her addiction, she said. But since getting sober and living in Charlevoix, she’s started to rebuild that relationship.
“When I was living here, she came and visited me,” Koste said. “That had been the first time I'd seen her face-to-face in— I couldn't even tell you how many years it had been since I’ve seen my mom face-to-face.”
She’s still figuring out who she is after her addiction. Her job has given her a schedule to stick to, a way to support herself and time for hobbies. She’s gotten back into photography — her husband just bought her a new camera — and she spent the summer collecting rocks along the shores of Lake Michigan.
“I didn't actually turn to drugs until I was almost 30 years old," Koste said. "I think it could have been prevented had I got the right mental health treatment."
She’s hoping to become a peer counselor herself one day, especially for younger women. But for now, this job has helped her get back on her feet.
