There was something missing in Anthony’s “kind of average childhood.” With a roof over his head and food in his mouth, he went to school and played sports like other kids. But something crucial was never present. “I grew up without a biological father,” says Anthony. “It wasn’t until I was older that I caught the understanding of that.” He was about 12 or 13 when he started getting rebellious. It started with smoking marijuana and soon branched out to cocaine, drinking, and smoking cigarettes. He dropped out of high school when he was 17.
Spiraling down
“From the time I dropped out of high school and walked away from my family, homelessness was a factor more often than not ... the majority of the time I really had no place to go.” In the midst of chaos and addiction, Anthony spiraled downhill. He got into extensive use of meth. It wasn’t long before he found that by committing crime, he could support his addiction. “It just got worse, and worse, and worse.”
The next 10 years were spent in and out of prison. When he wasn’t in prison, he was homeless and hungry. “I would just go get high and that would kind of curb the hunger.” Anthony’s lowest point was discovering a cystic lesion was growing inside his right lung. “It was going to kill me.”
A second chance
After having major surgery, Anthony came to the Mission, where he willingly accepted help through the Mission’s prison ministry. “I remember [going] from being confined and locked up, to being free and out in the open. God moved the most in my life in that season, and from that [point] on, it’s just been success after success.”
As Anthony approached his graduation from the Mission’s recovery program, though, he experienced some fear about what lay ahead. “I had no concrete decision as to, an internship with the program or a career-based future,” he says. “I (had) no idea, at that time, what holding a steady job even looked like.”
Around that time, Tom Prenzlow, CEO of Systima, a local defense contracting company, and Eric Wightman, his Vice President of Operations, were looking at ways Systima might further support the Mission beyond financial donations. While touring the downtown Men’s Shelter, Eric saw potential – not only for our homeless neighbors, but for Systima as well. Eric says he was thinking from an operations standpoint, “Man, that’s a lot of people I can use here that need a job.”
A new career
An idea was hatched and soon put into motion. Systima would interview and hire Mission graduates and give them a chance at forging a career. Anthony was one of the first to be interviewed.
Anthony overcame his nerves, and his past, got through the interview process, and was hired as a Materials Handler. He was soon promoted to CNC Machinist, which is his current position.
Tom raves about Anthony today. “He’s a great machinist, just a great overall person. And he’s got nowhere but up to go in this company. I wouldn’t be surprised if I came back in 20 years and Anthony is sitting in my seat.”
Anthony is grateful to both the Mission, and to Systima for giving him a chance. “I give them 110% of my knowledge and my effort. And that’s how I can tell them, through my actions and gratitude that they did for me, what no one else out there would do.”
