‘Anybody can change’: Oakland youth start car wash business to get out of troubled path

From stealing to starting their own business.

A group of Oakland youth are transforming their lives after a group of adults saw them going down the wrong path and decided to take action.

“When the car pull in, we get excited because that’s just more money,” said Kenneth McClendon with HomeBoyz Detailing Service. “And we making a person leave with a good attitude.”

HomeBoyz Detailing Service at 85th Avenue and San Leandro Street is more than just a car wash. With every clean car is also a decision the teens behind the company are making to build a business instead of burglarizing one.

Before the teens opened their own hand car wash, they were breaking into cars and stores like CVS and Walgreens across the Bay Area.

Draymond Wilkes, an 8th grade student, started stealing when he was 12.

“I mean, sometimes I would tell myself not to do it,” he said. “But then I would still end up doing it either way because it was the money that was making me keep on doing it.”

The group’s members range in age from 8 years old to their early teens. Many said on their prior path, even jail time was not enough to stop them from breaking the law.

“I always had that feeling in my body that was just, like, you know, you’re not supposed to be doing this,” said King McClendon with HomeBoyz Detailing Service. “If you get caught, your mom not coming to get you.”

In April, that path changed when Zirl Wilson, CEO of Lu Lu’s House, a non-profit that works with homeless and troubled youth, met the group of eight.

Wilson said he was shopping at the Eastmont Mall CVS when he watched them steal everything they could from the store. He later confronted the teens.

“That was me at that age and it was that’s a pipeline of prison,” Wilson said. “So me not saying something and me knowing what I know would have been wrong for me to do and just sit by and just watch it.”

Over time Wilson and his group of partners went from strangers to mentors for the young men, eventually helping them start the car wash to ear money the right way.

Now the boys are excelling school, participating in community meetings and cleanups.

“I was just letting them know anybody can change,” Wilson said. “So the more time I spent with them, the more that we came as a unit together. You know what I mean? And I’ll listen to what they have to say. They just want to be heard.”

And it appears the group’s new path is paying off.

As long as they keep a 3.0 grad point average in school and continue the program, all eight members will receive full-ride scholarships to college via a commitment from sports agent and Oakland native Aaron Goodwin.

The group’s weekly Saturday car wash is funded with help from Argent Materials and the Oakland Private Industry Council.

Wilson now hopes community support will allow him and the group to expand their resources and help more troubled youth.

“I feel proud because where they came from,” Wilson said. “I see the changes. The subtle changes. The big changes. The way they dress. The way they approach people. The way they talk to people. How grateful they are.”

It is a pride the young entrepreneurs said they feel too.

“I like doing good things better than doing bad because when you’re doing bad, you still got to look over your shoulder,” McClendon said.

Now with their new path and bigger dreams, they hope their example can change the direction of others as well.

“Some people could be watching us,” McClendon said. “They probably might want to change their life too because watching other kids changing their life and not doing the bad stuff that they used to do.”