| A
Second Chance |
| Charles
Wight Helps Inmates Pave the Way to a Better Life |
By Sabrina Enayatulla
Observer Staff Writer |
| "The Dory" felt the cold rush of the Chesapeake
Bay against her hand-made body for the first time when Reston
resident Charles Wight launched her last summer. A book on
how to build kayaks, a passion for woodworking and two years
was all Wight needed to set sail in the craft, a result of
his own hard work. |
| Wight, 74, is officially retired, but his days are busy,
filled with volunteer work, community service and trips to
the county jail. |
| While most people who participate in mentoring programs
meet their eager students in a classroom or a library setting,
Wight meets with inmates on a weekly basis as part of the
O.A.R. (opportunities, alternatives and resources) program
helping to provide adults in jail with the tools they will
need to function in society when they are released. |
| Wight began mentoring at the local jail in the early 1990s
and said he was a little surprised on his first day. |
| "You walk into a room full of perfectly ordinary people,"
he said. "You kind of expect them to look like criminals." |
| The first inmate Wight sat down with was arrested for robbing
a bank. Over time, the man straightened up and was released. |
| "Now he works at a bank and holds the keys to the
safe," Wight said with a chuckle. |
| Wight said the mentors are given little background on why
the inmates are locked up, but many of the prisoners are behind
bars for drug-related offenses. |
| One man whom Wight mentored was a man who was in jail for
a crack addiction. Eventually the two became good friends
and Wight followed him all the way to White Post, Va, to another
jail, then to the Washington, D.C. jail system and eventually
to Lorton, Va., to continue their mentoring sessions. |
| "He's been cleaned up for a while now," White
said. "He got out and has been an upstanding-law-abiding
citizen with a good job for years." |
| Wight was born and raised in New York City. His father was
a banker and business executive and his mother was involved
in charity work. Wight attended college at Yale and then earned
his master's degree at Columbia. |
| In addition to mentoring inmates, Wight teaches a computer
class once a week, volunteers at the senior home, cooks breakfast
for a men's group at his church once a month, sits on the
Reston Association's Board of Trustees, participates in the
annual Works Sunday program, is a house captain for Christmas
in April, supports RPJ housing and Gabriel Homes. |
| Even with Wight's busy schedule of taking time to help others,
he said he plans on eventually getting back to his woodwork. |
| "I'll have to get a workshop this time," Wight
said. "My wife won't let me build another one in the
basement." |
