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When I woke up on the morning of Oct. 28 and looked out the window, my heart sank.

Snow was coming down, not a lot of it, but enough to spoil the Open House. I and the other members of the Board of Directors had been working for two years to start a Clubhouse for persons with serious mental illness - Laurel House at 316 Livingston Avenue - and we had planned a gala Open House from 3 to 5 p.m. on Oct. 28 to announce to the Central Jersey community that Laurel House was really open. At 3:30 a ribbon-cutting ceremony was scheduled. And the heavens had sent untimely snow in October. This wasn't Alaska; this was New Brunswick, New Jersey. Snow? We were supposed to be having turning leaves, bright sunshine, and an Indian summer.

Although Laurel House is the first clubhouse for persons with chronic mental illness in New Jersey, such clubhouses are not new. Massachusetts has 34 Clubhouses. The first Clubhouse, Fountain House, on West 47th Street in New York City, began in 1948 as a self-help group of people with serious mental illness released from a psychiatric hospital, and there are now about 400 Clubhouses world-wide. Even Alaska - with a total state population of about 600,000 - has a functioning Clubhouse for persons with serious mental illness. (Polaris House, in Juneau (population 30,000), compared to a population in New Jersey of three-quarters of a million people in Middlesex County alone!) The focus of these Clubhouses is recovery, with support for its members to obtain and maintain employment and independent living.

I got to Laurel House at little after 2. A mix of snow and rain was still coming down. Laurel House, far from being deserted, as I had feared, was a beehive of activity. Annette Mayo, president of the Board of Directors, and Glenna Gundell, another Board member were busy putting out snacks on the conference table that Glenna had spent a day preparing. Two students from Rutgers University, Joel Chokkattu, a sophomore in the Visual Arts Program at the Mason Gross School of the Arts and Gaurav Panchal, another student from that program, were arranging video cameras in preparation for a videotaped record of the event. Things were certainly humming. But the critical question remained: in light of the weather, how many invited guests would come?

The short answer is: a houseful. David B. Crabiel, director of the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, was there to voice words of encouragement. (The Board of Freeholders contributed more than mere words; without its $75,000 contribution Laurel House could not have begun the process of accumulating the funds from individuals and foundations needed to open.) Other crucial contributions came from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rutgers Community Health Foundation, the Magyar Bank Foundation, and the Karma Foundation. Another indispensable guest drove from Manhattan in the snow to be there; Joel Corcoran, director of the International Center for Clubhouse Development, had been our mentor over the two-year period that it took to move Laurel House from a hopeful idea to an operating reality. Although Mr. Corcoran provided advice, training, and conference-call discussions over these years, his final contribution was perhaps his most important. He recommended the perfect person to be the executive director of Laurel House: Thomas Malamud, who had recently retired after 42 years at Fountain House, still the gold-standard for Clubhouses for persons with chronic mental illness.

Judging by the crowd, I do not believe that those who could not get to the Open House were deterred by the snow. For example, one of the heroes of Laurel House, Alyson Leone, a young attorney from the law firm, Wilentz, Goldman and Spitzer, did not get to the opening. Alyson had been working tirelessly for months pro bono - that is to say, without compensation - on the surprisingly large number of legal issues involved in starting a Clubhouse.

The bottom line is that Laurel House is now open from 9 to 5 on weekdays - even if it snows - to provide peer support for persons with chronic mental illness who want that support. (What prevents Laurel House from being open on weekends, a difficult time for Clubhouse members, is scarce money.) Opening the Clubhouse was the first difficult step. Keeping it operating so as to deal with the continuing work and educational problems of its members is even harder. For readers interested in more information about Laurel House, including how to become a member, call (732) 246-0028, send an email (lhm316@verizon.net), or check out its Web site: http://www.laurelhousemiddlesex.org.

Jackson Toby is a professor emeritus of sociology at Rutgers University and vice-president of the Laurel House Board of Directors.