Youth Straightens Life Out at Boys Town

*The following article was printed July 20, 2010 in the Centennial View News. It is written by Maggie Lillis.

Like many 19-year-olds, Rey Baca is ready and waiting on the doorstep to the rest of his life.

Before he can join ranks with the military in February, he must say goodbye to the home that helped transform him from lost teen, angry and engaging in graffiti, to U.S. Marine.

At 15, Baca was placed in a group living arrangement through Boys Town Nevada, an organization serving struggling families and children in the foster care system.

The lifelong Las Vegan was a foster child until he was adopted right before his ninth birthday. He grew rebellious in the new arrangement and spent a lot of time away from home and in the wrong crowd, he said.

He immersed himself in the graffiti scene and put responsibilities from his father and school on the back burner. His grade point average dipped to 0.07.

"I was used to being on my own," he said. "My dad got fed up."

The family was linked to Boys Town Nevada, and Baca moved into one of five Boys Town Treatment Family Homes in northwest Las Vegas.

The latest transition wasn't smooth, either.

House "Family-Teacher" Tim Mathews said the teen set himself on an eight-month outburst -- disrespecting him and his wife, Jill, intimidating others and stealing.

The Mathewses struggled to help Baca adjust to the schedule and family-style atmosphere set in the house.

"I let all my anger out," Baca said. "I knew I was making them mad."

Soon, accountability, responsibility and, perhaps most importantly, trust built between all parties. Now, Baca is a leader in the home he shares with the Mathewses, their two small children and five other Boys Town Nevada young men.

Photos of the group posing in front of a Christmas tree, on vacations to the beach or just in a loving embrace with each other line the walls inside the home. Scrapbook pages for each member are framed in the dining room. Baca's page lists his favorite color as clear and his plans to visit the Bahamas one day.

His signature is at the bottom of the house's moral code agreement sheet.

On his bedroom walls hang medals from track and field, photos of his favorite artist, Jay-Z, and his acceptance letter into the U.S. Marine Corps. Baca is manager and a monitor of his peers' chores. Mathews said he's a snappy dresser and takes younger men under his wing about their appearance.

Baca also has excelled outside the house. He achieved a 4.0 grade point average at Arbor View High School and competed on the varsity track and field team.

"He's gone from a kid with no commitment to going into the military," Mathews said. "That's a great goal to have."

Baca chose to pursue a career with the Marines because "it was the hardest to get into." He is scheduled to go to boot camp at the beginning of next year.

Tom Waite, Executive Director for Boys Town Nevada, said stories akin to Baca's are proof of what the organization is working toward.

"The focus ... the purpose for what we do as an organization is to help youths depart the foster care system and become positive members of society," he said.

Foster kids, he said, are up against double hurdles just to get out into the real world.

Fifty percent of children in the foster care system don't graduate high school. The figure is compounded by an average graduation rate of 41.8 percent in the state.

The Boys Town Nevada graduates success rate is 83 percent, Waite said.

The organization places youths in family-style living arrangements and works to establish traditional values of a good work ethic and discipline through measures such as a good-behavior point system and chores.

The point system earns the young men and women rewards, such as extra free time.

Baca gives a simple prediction as to where he would be without Boys Town Nevada. "Definitely in jail," he said.

Baca still has a relationship with his adoptive father and sees him often. He said he knows his dad is proud of his progress.

Baca is proud of himself, too, he said. But he's more eager for the next step.

"I'm excited and sad to leave," he said. "I've lived here a long time. It's hard to leave, but I'm excited. I'm ready."