LAKEWOOD - Lee Atwater looks very much at home behind the counter at Custom Carpet Centers, just off Fairmount Avenue.
The store manager prides himself on selling quality products to his customers, and aims to please in every aspect of his work.
It may come as a surprise that this young man spent nine months of his childhood in the Randolph Children's Home, landing there after threatening his sister with a knife and being an accessory to a burglary.
''The stuff I got into trouble for wasn't really a way of life,'' Atwater said. ''It was a habitual thing.''
Atwater credits the Children's Home with turning his life around and keeping him from growing up to become a welfare recipient, a criminal, or worse.
''Literally, I would be in jail or probably dead,'' if not for the Children's Home, Atwater said. ''One or the other.''
TURNING POINT
Life growing up in Franklinville was far from ideal for Atwater, who tells a tale of neglect and suffering.
''Real rough, lucky if you had socks and underwear to wear to school,'' he said. ''I remember distinctly getting picked on a lot - not having underwear or socks or shoes that fit.''
Falling victim to the ''welfare syndrome'' as he calls it, Atwater found himself running afoul of authority and the law at a young age.
''When I was 12, I got into some trouble,'' he said. ''It wasn't too good of a situation.''
After a visit to Family Court, Atwater was placed into the now-closed Southern Tier Non-Secure Detention Center in Falconer, waiting for placement at the Randolph facility. Seven months later, he was transferred to the Children's Home. Once he acclimated to the environment there, he discovered an outlet to focus his attention.
''They had the barn there,'' he said. ''I was part of doing the chores and everything, so I got up at 5:30 every morning, got dressed and went over to the barn.''
Atwater took care of the horses in the barn, feeding them and looking after them, before and after school every day. He says the experience taught him a lesson he likely would have never learned had he remained in Franklinville - responsibility.
''As far as responsibility goes, that was the best thing that happened to me,'' he said.
Atwater says the care he was shown by Children's Home staff is what prompted him to decide it was time to turn his life around.
''I didn't feel like anybody cared when I was a young kid,'' he said. ''They don't care if I come home for dinner, they don't care if I show up, they beat me if I do something wrong. To see that people actually do care and do want you to succeed and get somewhere, that was the huge turning point in my life.''
A NEW HOME
Atwater says the staff at Randolph Children's Home went the extra mile to help him get on the right track and find him a good home at the end of his stay.
''They put forth the effort to make the change in children, as opposed to like a jail where you do the time and get it over with,'' Atwater said. ''They help you change and become a better person.''
The staff at the home, according to Atwater, worked hard to place him in a family that would nurture him. After several unsuccessful visitations, including with his parents and an aunt and uncle in Franklinville, Atwater says his social worker kept trying to find an arrangement that would work.
''He worked very hard to get me placed into a decent home, as opposed to 'Here you go, thanks for doing your time, have a nice day, we don't care what you're going back to,''' Atwater said. ''I think that was the most important thing that the Children's Home could have done for me.''
The decent home Atwater eventually found was with an aunt and uncle in Falconer, Lori and Don Holm.
''I told (the social worker) that I wanted to go live with Don and Lori,'' Atwater said. ''We ended up sitting down and writing them a letter, and I found out years later that he ended up calling them and saying, 'Look, you're his last chance. If you don't take him and help him out, there's really nothing good that going to happen with him.'''
The Holms did take Atwater in, and they enrolled him in Levant Christian School in Falconer for his eighth-grade year, where he remained through 11th grade. He then transferred to Falconer High School, where he graduated in 2000.
''It was good because it did have that structure like the Children's Home did,'' Atwater said of going to Levant. ''When you get into a Christian environment and have that, it gives that extra something, I guess. That's the only way to describe it. It made me want to make people proud of me.''
LOOKING BACK
Atwater, now 27, looks back on his time at Randolph Children's Home fondly, but says it's not something he would wish to relive.
''It was a great experience, but it's not somewhere I want to revisit,'' he said. ''If it was like talking to the kids or something, and trying to get them to see, 'Look, if you do what you have to do, and make the changes they're asking you to make, you can get somewhere,' ... I would absolutely go back. But I don't want to just show up and knock on the door.''
He stands firm in his belief that the Children's Home is a valuable asset to the area, even if it does not save every child that comes through from a life of crime.
''Kids that go to the Children's Home don't always come out bad,'' he said. ''I know a few people around town who went to the Children's Home who work and do their thing and take care of their kids and are successful.''
In the end, Atwater says, taxpayers should be glad to see whatever percentage of kids that have their lives turned around and stay out of jail, no matter how small it might seem.
''Regardless of what kind of money is spent and what kind of effort is put in, if you can help even a quarter of the kids that went in there,'' then it is worth it, he said. ''If 100 kids go in, and maybe 75 do go to jail, but 25 don't - how many thousands of dollars a year is it to keep somebody in jail? They're saving that, even if it's only 25 percent.''
He says the home's staff also likely realizes it's not going to save every child that come through, but does its best to turn around as many as possible.
''There's no way that you can see these kids and not care what they end up being,'' he said. ''You can't put that energy into making them a better person while they're there just to have that reversed and throw it out the door.''
And when Atwater gives a list of his five siblings and how their lives turned out - a long list of disappointment highlighted by jail terms and welfare checks - he can't help but see the connection between his time in Randolph and the difference in his life.
''I'm the only one who graduated high school in my family and the only one who carries a full-time job,'' he said. ''I think that (without the Children's Home) I would be probably be in one of those situations. In fact, there's no doubt about it. I would be.''
