- December 3rd, 2006, 10:46 am
#44891
Very cool story from the Roanoke fishwrap:
Group home a central pivot in student's change of lifehttp://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/94125
Luke Coldiron overcame drug addictions and a tough home life and is now attending Liberty University.
By Beth Jones
981-3117
This time last year, Luke Coldiron seemed destined for prison or a grave.
College certainly didn't appear to be in the cards for the young, self-described alcoholic and drug addict.
But Coldiron, now 20, has almost finished his first semester at Liberty University.
A year of tuition, room and board at Liberty University costs more than $20,000. Coldiron, an alumnus of the Bedford County Group Homes, is responsible for $2,500 annually, but only if he qualifies for a student loan. Liberty provided a scholarship to cover the rest.
Paul Tesi, facility director at BCGH, didn't predict such a rosy future for Coldiron. The last time he'd seen the young man, sometime in 2005, he looked horrible.
"He looked as close as possible to being a dead person and still being alive," Tesi said.
That day, Tesi refused to let Coldiron visit Tesi's teenage son, even though the two boys had been like brothers. "I'm not going to let Winston see you like this," he said.
That's all changed now. Coldiron spent much of the Thanksgiving break hanging with Winston, 16, at Tesi's Lynchburg home. He spent an afternoon helping the family put up Christmas lights.
"Honestly and truly, I never would have thought ... how well he's doing now," Tesi said. "I never thought he'd do this well."
Luke Coldiron said he began smoking and stealing in the fourth grade. By the time he entered Bedford Middle School, he drank alcohol and smoked and sold marijuana. He was in trouble with the law. He struggled with depression.
At age 14, Coldiron was admitted to a mental hospital after threatening to kill himself.
Luke's mother, Peggy Coldiron, signed him over as a ward of the court. She said she knew he needed professional help, which she couldn't afford.
The court sent Luke Coldiron to a facility for children with mental health and behavioral problems in central Virginia.
He spent three months there, before good behavior got him moved to the less restrictive BCGH.
"I kind of fell in love with the place pretty quick," he said. "It was better than home."
With two staff members for every three children, the employees at the BCGH had time to give Coldiron, who had a difficult home life as a child, much-needed attention and emotional help.
Coldiron, who has attention-deficit disorder, passed his General Educational Development test at BCGH's school, New Hope Academy, in 2004.
The staff arranged for him to attend Liberty in the fall.
Two weeks after his 18th birthday, Coldiron decided to leave BCGH. He moved in with his mom, who'd separated from his father and was living in Lynchburg.
"I felt bad," he said. "I knew they must be disappointed."
Coldiron followed his mom when she moved to Michigan.
There, he made friends with a rough crowd. Soon, he'd sampled nearly every drug on the menu: mushrooms, crack, pills, cocaine, pot. Ecstasy became his drug of choice. "I was stuck like glue, doing it every day, every second," he said.
He lost 60 pounds. "It was a nightmare time," Peggy Coldiron said.
When his mother moved to a different town in Michigan, though, visiting his drug buddies meant a long commute. He went for longer and longer periods without doing Ecstasy. On New Year's Eve he took it for the last time.
By the end of May, he'd given up drinking.
"Screw it," he said. "God, take my life."
Coldiron started thinking about the future. He wanted to go to Liberty.
"I haven't been living right," Tesi remembers Coldiron telling him over the phone. "I don't want to live this way anymore. I'm trying to get my life straight, and I need your help."
"At that point I wasn't really convinced he was serious," Tesi said. "I was very, very skeptical."
Tesi told Coldiron he'd have to prove it.
But when Coldiron filled out his application to Liberty and paperwork for financial aid, Tesi was sold.
"He's never been a really strong student. For him to take the initiative and get all this done," Tesi said, still sounding bewildered.
Tesi agreed to help, and Coldiron began classes Aug. 23.
A month passed and neither Coldiron nor Tesi had any idea how he'd pay tuition.
Tesi told Coldiron to explain to the financial aid office that "it's a faith thing."
Around that time, Tesi, out of the blue, received a phone call from a Liberty employee who wanted to set a time for Jerry Falwell to tour BCGH. Falwell had heard about the program through a friend.
During the visit, Tesi told Falwell of Coldiron. The minister and founder of Liberty agreed to give Coldiron the four-year scholarship, even though Coldiron had been out of the home for several years. The university has an agreement with BCGH to help five qualified group home residents a year, by covering any remaining costs for tuition and room and board after the student has applied for government and state aid.
"All of a sudden God sent Jerry Falwell right at me," Coldiron said.
Coldiron hopes his education will put him on the path for a career as a missionary pilot.
He wants to deliver the Gospel.
"It's going to take a little while to get the confidence to get in front of people," he said.
Coldiron doesn't worry that statistics show many recovering drug addicts will relapse.
"I'm not even tempted. After I gave my life to Christ, I can't explain it to you," he said. "I can't tell you how much he's changed me inside my head and inside my heart."
- By ECC29
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