A face of recovery

Sarah Todora is singing again. With her dad, she’s also helping women who suffer with addiction as she did.

Sam Morris

Sarah Todora, 21, a singer and recovering addict, is pressing back onto the Vegas music scene after going through detox programs. She and her father also have started Primary Purpose, a 12-step program aimed at helping women in recovery.

By Jerry Fink (contact)

Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Todora shoots for the stars (1-25-2006)
Bad luck revisits pair (12-8-2005)

When she was just 17, Sarah Todora’s talent was beyond compare. She sounded like a much older blues singer. Loaded with all that talent, looks and ambition, the teenager landed in Las Vegas determined to forge a career. Her stairway to the stars seemed like a runaway escalator.

Thanks to the aggressive backing of her father, Todora played a couple of free engagements at Capozzolli’s. She caught the attention of the head of entertainment at the Sahara and headlined for almost six months in the Casbar Lounge, made famous by Louis Prima. From time to time she performed for dinner crowds at the House of Blues.

Phil Todora, secure in the knowledge his daughter was on the right road, headed back to their native Louisiana.

Nothing was going to stop Sarah but Sarah.

That’s when her escalator started downward. She found a boyfriend, she says, who introduced her to methamphetamine.

Her dad returned to watch her open for the legendary Al Green at the House of Blues, but she was so strung out she couldn’t perform.

“I went with my dad for coffee a couple of days before the Al Green concert. He later told me my eyes were all over the place,” she says. “I weighed 103 pounds, when I’m normally 125.

“I told my father I loved him but that I was just waiting to die and that this was the last time he would see me.”

Phil Todora snatched his daughter the next day. “He called me up and said let’s go have lunch,” she says. When she got into the car her father started driving and didn’t stop until they arrived in Breaux Bridge, La.

“She detoxed in the car,” he says.

It didn’t take her long to land back on the streets, doing every kind of drug but meth.

“A few things happened that scared me,” she says. “I knew if I didn’t quit I was going to die. That’s when I called Dad and he took me to the hospital to detox again. I got into treatment.”

She describes a halfway house straight out of a Dickens novel and slipping back into drugs a couple of more times before she finally quit for good.

Inspired by his daughter’s experience, Phil Todora started a halfway house for women, the Open Hands Foundation.

“Women have it worse than men,” he says. “They become preyed upon.”

Sarah Todora decided she wanted to return to Las Vegas. Her singing career apparently over, she earned money walking the Strip as an M&M caricature. She worked in a video store and studied massage therapy.

One day she called her father in Louisiana and asked him to help her get back into music.

“She also told me she wanted to help start a halfway house here for recovering addicts,” Phil Todora says.

It’s a cause he is passionate about. In addition to his daughter’s problems, he’s a recovering alcoholic himself, 15 years sober. Last year he buried his 20-year-old nephew, who lost a battle with drugs.

Since returning to Las Vegas, the father and daughter have started Primary Purpose, a 12-step program under the Open Hands Foundation umbrella.

And Sarah Todora, 21, is singing again.

She was a guest artist at the Nevada Recovery Celebration at Cashman Field. She began performing at the E String bar in Henderson, where Jerry Lopez, founder of Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns, heard her.

Lopez, who has been a mainstay in the Vegas music scene for more than 30 years, says he was inspired by Sarah’s story, talent and her father’s efforts to help women in recovery.

“I’ve been in the music business my whole life. A lot of friends never made it back from drugs and alcohol, so I’m sensitive to all that,” says Lopez, who had his own issues with substance abuse in the ’70s. “When I was coming up, sex, drugs and alcohol were not only condoned but expected. We didn’t have a shot. Very few survived as working musicians.

“Sarah’s story is intriguing. It pulled at my heart strings — but it’s typical.”

Lopez describes Todora as a diamond in the rough and said he wants to help her advance her music career. “She needs something to set her apart, original music that speaks to who she is and everything about her,” he says.

As much as he is interested in helping Sarah, he also wants to help their project — Primary Purpose.

“I want to get some big names in entertainment to come together to find a way to help these women who have no place else to turn,” Lopez says.

Discussion: 10 comments so far…

By davidwayneosedach

10/15/09 at 6:57 a.m.

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She is so young and talented. Yet I have the funny feeling that she will slip back into drugs.
By KillerB

10/15/09 at 8:04 a.m.

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"With her dad, she's also helping women who suffer with addiction as she did."

It's self-inflicted suffering. And I have problem having sympathy for that. Quit whining, suck it up and move on!
By BIOYA

10/15/09 at 11:18 a.m.

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All that talent, and wanting to wastes her life to drugs.... very sad.... and very selfish....to throw away her talents... to drugs... Isn't it time to wonder...with all the attention.... it's still not enough... and enough will still be not enough....
By 9ballguy

10/15/09 at 2:41 p.m.

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BIOYA you and none of us will ever know why she "threw away her talents" to drugs. Addiction is a disease. What you are saying is like saying she threw away her talents by contracting cancer or diabetes.
By KillerB

10/15/09 at 6 p.m.

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"Addiction is a disease."

9ballguy -- how can anything self-inflicted be a disease?
By 9ballguy

10/15/09 at 8:48 p.m.

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Because addiction is a disease affecting the entire body...including the mind.
By chowerter

10/17/09 at 6:43 a.m.

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If you knew her at all, other than through a newspaper article, you would not assume that she is whining or "have the funny feeling" that she will slip back into drugs. We all make mistakes in life that cause us and/or others some kind of grief. To judge that one persons mistakes are worse than our own is not our place. When a person can learn from those mistakes and use that experience to step outside of themselves and expose their weakness to help others - that is courage, not whining. It's usually those that stay focused on themselves and continually rethink all the misery in their lives that end up making the same wrong choices again. I commend Sarah for her efforts and having enough courage to acknowledge her weaknesses and use it to bring about a greater good. There is so much human suffering out there...what are all of you trying to do to change it?
By 9ballguy

10/17/09 at 1:35 p.m.

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Chowerter you must reread my posts before you lump me in with the other judgemental ones. Addiction is a disease and those that suffer from it need our compassion and understanding. I also commend Sarah for her efforts and courage.
By chowerter

10/17/09 at 1:55 p.m.

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I apologize for not acknowledging your supportive comments. I definitely do not lump you in with the rest. I was referencing the commentors of her whining and potential slip back into drug use. Again, I apologize for offending you and focusing in on the negative comments and not praising you for your understanding and supportive remarks. I do truly thank you for that.
By mzleisa

10/28/09 at 6:41 p.m.

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As a recovering addict/alcoholic, I can tell you that nothing is further from the truth than thinking that addiction is a weakness. It is a mental disease coupled with a physical allergy.
Alcoholism is an addiction to alcohol. So one might say that an alcoholic is actually an addict.

The exact definition by the AMA is:
"Alcoholism is a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by continuous or periodic: impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, most notably denial."

This can be found all over the web.

Having had the pleasure of meeting and working with Sarah & her dad, Phil, I can honestly say that in my humble but experienced opinion, the chances of Sarah relapsing are very, very, slim.

We are taught in recovery that we can't keep what we have (sobriety) if we don't give it away, and that's exactly what Sarah & her dad are doing.

I'm really happy to see this article & I wish Sarah all the best. She's a phenomenal talent & has a fantastic long career ahead of her.