Group home for boys builds breakers

It's an overcast, humid day in early July at Mason Neck State Park. For nearly the past three weeks, nine Prince William Group Home boys have been hauling rock into the bay from the muddy shore.

They're building an 80-foot-long section of a wall meant to prevent erosion on the shoreline. The wall is partially submerged in the water, a little more than 20 yards from the shore.

"We're losing our shoreline out there fast," said Virginia State Parks Public Relations and Marketing Specialist Cyndi Juarez.

Effects of erosion at Mason Neck are everywhere. There's a slope where there used to be a trail, downed trees and debris makes it look like a hurricane blew through.

Rocks tumble down a rockslide; the boys load them onto a barge, which they then push through the water to the wall.

They place the rocks in the mesh basket, creating a barrier between the bay and the shore.

The project is almost complete and it's easy to see the difference. The water inside the new walls is visibly much more peaceful.

Park Ranger Marc Ingramm said four groups have worked on this project since it began. So far, 525 tons of rocks have been moved to create 324 linear feet of shoreline, Ingramm said.

Environment aside, the boys are also reaping benefits.

"I enjoy it," Zack, one of the Group Home boys, from Woodbridge said. "I like being outdoors, I like working with my hands, I like being in the water."

Zack said the project at Mason Neck has helped him learn how essential teamwork is to complet-ing the task, though they'll be compensated $500.

"It's not just the dollar motivation, it's something inside that keeps me go-ing," Zack said.

Of the money he makes, Zack plans on spending $100, probably on shoes, food and clothing. He'll save $200 and give $200 to his mother to help with a deposit on a new house in South Bridge.

"I think she deserves it," Zack said. "She always helped me out when I needed it, put a roof over my head when I needed it, food in my mouth, clothes on my back."

Zack, who used to attend C.D. Hylton High School was ordered to live in the Prince William Group Home for Boys after violating his probation for crossing state borders. Prior to that Zack, a dirty blond 15-year-old with wisps of sideburns and a beard, was in the drug corps program for using marijuana.

"I came in with a lot of problems with family and with school," Zack said.

Six months at the group home has taught him to better cope with his family.

"The program is not working against me, it's working with me," Zack said.

This is the first time the Prince William Group Home for Boys participated in this project. The Prince William Group Home for Girls worked at Leesylvania State Park last year and return this summer.

The guys living in the group home (all ages 13 to 17, usually 12 at a time for a duration of 12 months) are there on court orders, typically for charges such as breaking and entering, drugs, truancy or assault. Program therapist Matt Hampton said most of their activities in the summer are community service-oriented.

"A lot of these guys have charges," Hampton, 30, said. "[This project] teaches them team bulidng them first, it teaches them giving back to the community."

Mason Neck would be giving the boys a $500 stipend upon completion of three weeks of work. Hampton said some of these guys have never earned money in a legal, honest fashion.

The project was voluntary for the boys. Three elected not to complete the three weeks.

"They said 'No, it's too hard.' But these guys stuck with it," Hamp-ton said.

For others, this kind of work is quite familiar.

Mauricio stands, water up to his calves. The rocks come tumbling down the rockslide, about 15 feet, from the back of a John Deere Gator. He uses a shovel to guide the rocks.

Mauricio, 15, has plenty of experience in this kind of work. He's been landscaping with his father since he was 10.

Still, he said it's difficult for him and the other boys during low tide, when they're basically pushing the barge of rocks through the mud.

"I learned that if you communicate more with people you'll be better off," Mau-ricio said. "If you see someone working alone, go help them. Just go help others."

Mauricio was a member of the South Side Locos, or SSL, a gang he joined at the age of 13. Rival gang MS-13 killed a close friend in 2005.

"They thought he did something but it wasn't him. So he basically died for no rea-son," Mauricio said.

Mauricio signed up with SSL looking for revenge. He moved from Alexandria to Prince William County to live with his dad. He attended Gar-Field Senior High School and got into fights when other kids would throw up gang signs. He was kicked out, went to New Directions Alternative Center in Manassas, and was kicked out for being caught with a firearm. For that, he spent 30 days at a juvenile detention center.

Then, got kicked out of his home schooling program for showing up drunk.

He ran away, then his mom, a former "gangbanger" herself, set him up by asking him to buy her a pack of cigarettes at a store, where the police were waiting. He went to a shelter, then, for the past 11 months, to the group home.

"It's been going up and down," Mauricio said. "A lot of rough parts, a lot of good parts."

The rough parts included an additional charge for assault and getting caught using cocaine and ecstasy on his home visits, he said. Still, the group home improved his life.

"I changed," Mauricio said. "I got better grades in school. … Now I don't want to drop out of school."

He said he plans on joining the Army, and possibly studying landscaping in college.

"We're doing this to help them out," Mauricio said. "If we don't put this there, the erosion is going to come and knock all the trees out."

Staff writer Josh Eiserike can be reached at 703-878-8072.