A Home Away From Home

People visit the YMCA for a lot of different reasons, some go to exercise, others to participate in a class, but for a 6-year-old boy it was so much more. It would become his safety net that would keep him from being pulled into a life of gangs and crime.

This is a story about a young man named Anthony Perdoma. To say that Anthony got a rough start in life would be an understatement. To see just how far he has come is simply inspiring.

Now 16, Anthony is a tall slender young man who speaks simply and eloquently about his past. While many are amazed that he's managed to rise above a life that could have pulled him into an entirely different direction, for Anthony it is just the facts of his life.

But before he would find the Y and where it has led him today, his life would take more than a few twists and turns along the way.

When Anthony was 6, his father moved the family from California to the metro Atlanta area. The Perdomas were staying with a family in Dacula when Anthony's father left, abandoning him, his older sister and mother. "We were left to fend for ourselves," says Anthony simply.

Now a family of three, they moved again. "We moved in with friends and for a year the three of us took turns sleeping on the couch," he recalls.

Maria, Anthony's mother, finally managed to find a one-bedroom apartment in the Norcross area. It was a place of their own but they brought little to furnish their new home. "We had two thick covers to sleep on, no mattress," Anthony remembers. "We had one pillow and a small TV."

But she was concerned about leaving her young son alone while she worked 11-hours a day as a housekeeper. Left unsupervised in the environment they was living in would only lead him astray.

She was determined that life was not going to claim her youngest child. But she faced the dilemma of finding a place that would provide the kind of place that would inspire and encourage him and one that she could afford.

The answer came while she was driving to work. Each day she would pass the YMCA on the corner of Peachtree Corners Circle and Jones Bridge Road. Hesitant at first, she finally found the courage to approach the Y about after school programs for her young son.

A short time later Anthony began an after school program and a karate class and that became the beginning of a new life for the young boy who would spend the next decade of his life growing up at the Y.

The Y would turn out to be more than a safe haven - it would become Anthony's home away from home. "The Y has helped me and my mother so much," said Anthony softly. "The Y protected me from that environment. I don't really know how to thank the Y really."

But the truth is, Anthony has given a lot more to the Y than he could ever imagine. His story is an inspiration for those who have watched him grow up at the Y said Curtis Winston, Associate Executive Director at Fowler YMCA.

"I think what makes Anthony so remarkable is he doesn't mind sharing his story," says Winston.

While many of the youth in his neighborhood, including his older sister, were dragged into a world of gangs and drugs, Anthony had the Y.

He continues taking Karate classes and spending time after school at the Y. And now his plans also include those of a typical teenager, getting his driver's license, graduating from high school and then heading off to college where he hopes to pursue a degree in the medical field.

The YMCA does indeed offer a variety of choices for people, now heading to the Y takes on a whole new meaning.