Nate Abeyta was severely beaten during his initiation into a street gang at age 8 and within three years was selling drugs to middle-school classmates along with his mom, he said.
Nate was arrested again after he and friends broke into a Fort Morgan school and smashed 22 computers, spray-painted gang signs on walls and stole electronic equipment.
Now, the 14-year-old probationer washes clothes and cheerfully greets customers at The Second Chance Thrift Store, which has given new life to troubled youths as well as old clothes.
Nate’s mentors say his behavior and attitude – like those of dozens of other at-risk kids involved in the Fort Morgan program – have improved dramatically.
The store was the result of a dream Crystal Tweeten, a former police officer in Alaska, had after coming to Fort Morgan to work for the Eastern Colorado Workforce Center.
Tweeten said that during her 13 years as an Anchorage cop, she had pondered whether there was a way to help criminals escape patterns of self-destructive behavior.
As an employment specialist, she also fretted over the struggles that troubled youths had finding jobs.
One morning Tweeten awoke with an idea: Why not create a business run by at-risk young people?
Officials at the center received two federal grants, administered through Colorado’s Office of Labor and Employment.
Beginning in 2005, a grant enabled young people between the ages of 14 and 21 to work at a city animal shelter.
A second, later grant helped the group create the thrift store in a dilapidated old garage. The kids helped paint and carpet the building.
At Tweeten’s request, the thrift store is run by the Baby Foundation, a nonprofit group that helps children with life- threatening illnesses.
Money collected at the store helps families of the children, said Kevin Kirschmar, president of the Women’s Clinic of the Plains. Kirschmar’s wife, Michelle Soriano, is a doctor at the clinic.
The grant pays wages to kids who stock the thrift store shelves and operate the register.
The program caught the attention of state officials, including Don Mares, director of the Office of Labor and Employment, who said he has recommended it to many colleagues at national conventions.
Mares recently visited the store and spoke with each youth individually.
“The program intervenes in those kids’ lives early on,” Mares said. “The kids have a lot of responsibility.”
Fort Morgan probation officer Dawn Hayes said the workforce center has helped gang members who get caught up in drug dealing and commit assaults with weapons.
When the kids got into trouble in the past, they couldn’t find jobs, she said.
Tweeten said kids can’t wear gang colors or flash gang signs, and they can’t listen to rap music.
“I depend on the kids a lot,” Tweeten said. “They find their own resources, and they’re taking responsibility.”
Three months ago, Nate Abeyta started taking care of animals at the Fort Morgan animal shelter after a string of arrests, he said.
“The stuff I used to do for fun got me into trouble,” he said. “I was hanging around (gangs), and all of a sudden I was in one. I was jumped in.”
Nate got drugs and alcohol from his mother and her friends, he said.
He and his mother were busted for selling drugs when he was 11 and in the fifth grade, he said.
Two years later, he was arrested after the school rampage.
The dog shelter was the only place he could get a job, Nate said.
He fed and groomed animals and cleaned kennels. He recently helped clean and stock the thrift store.
It hasn’t always been easy, but he has learned to work even when he doesn’t feel like it, he said.
Nate said it’s a rare opportunity. He has started paying off the $13,000 he owes in restitution to the school.
“I’ve got jail hanging over me. I’m worried about my future,” Nate said. “I don’t want to be in jail my whole life.”
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
