Youth for Tomorrow in Bristow holds graduation

In another life, 17-year-old Gabi Von Wallen was a neglected girl living with a burgeoning eating disorder and an abusive, alcoholic mother in war-torn Serbia.

Today, she's a high school graduate on her way to study fashion design at a college in Savannah, Ga.

The source of change?

"I will always remember that Youth for Tomorrow rescued me from a series of unbearable circumstances," she said during Thursday's 23rd graduation ceremony at the Youth for Tomorrow New Life Center in Bristow. "Thanks to Youth for Tomorrow, dreams can come true."

Von Wallen is hardly atypical of the students who attend. All have troublesome pasts marred by the likes of abuse, neglect, substance use and anger.

"Most of them don't want to be here," said chief executive officer Gary Jones. "Most of them think they'll show us something we haven't seen. But we've seen it all. We've heard it all. And by God's grace, we've endured it all."

Seventeen-year-old Kaprice Malloy is further proof.

"From day one, life for me was hard," the graduate said, referring to her heroin-addicted mother, early life on city streets, and the eventual death of her sister. "At age 5, I was put into the system. At age 13, I began running away from home, doing drugs, drinking … Youth for Tomorrow, you saved my life."

The facility is the brainchild of football coaching legend Joe Gibbs, who opened operations 25 years ago as a means of helping troubled youth reach their full potential -- the one God intended. The motto sums it best: Believe His Word. Trust His Grace. And so far, more than 800 children have walked that path, according to statistics posted on the organization's Web site.

"This," said Brit Hume, senior political analyst for Fox News and a member of the school's board of trustees, referring to the ceremony, "is the face of God. This is what this is. I think of you who have come through such challenges and … and I think of this experience that you young people have gone through, and I see this as a perfect reflection of how God works."

The program for the ceremony listed 13 as receiving high school graduate or general education development certificates; 10 as receiving eighth-grade graduation certificates, and 18 as receiving graduation certificates from the residential component of the school.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.