Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/83706
QUINTUS McDONALD "That's what it's all about, having people in the room hear your story and giving them something to identify with. If they can't identify, they take nothing away." spent more than 15 years bouncing from one job to another, everything from sales to driving a forklift. He'd get clean for a while, but when some- thing went wrong in his life, he found himself returning to alcohol and drugs. He always had big plans. (Said Ball: "Every time I talk to Q, he has a differ- ent project doing. I say, 'Don't tell me when you're starting – tell me when you finish and complete it.'") But Mc- Donald couldn't follow through. Eventually, however, at one of his lower points, the Christian organization came through with the pickup truck. The ensuing trip to the scrap yard, where McDonald learned how to recycle metals, turned into his recycling or- ganization, which focused on employing the hard-to-employ. McDonald said that in the summer of 2010, his organization found part- time jobs for more than 40 people, in- cluding 20 convicted felons. Most of the people had battled drug additions, too. Three of the part-timers, he said, are still employed today. But he had what he calls one more "bump in the road." Then he moved to Durham, got involved with his new church on Nov. 14, 2010, less than three weeks after he got clean again. "I've not touched a bit of nothing – cig- arette, marijuana, heroin, cocaine. I don't even take pain medicine." Cornelius Battle, pastor of the Ebenez- er Missionary Baptist Church, said McDonald is one of his most active members, volunteering for a variety of ministries, particularly anything in- volving public outreach. He's even started helping Battle with some min- isterial duties. "I think he has gotten a second wind in life that he's not gonna mess up that opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people," Battle said. "He's excited about his new lease on life." In addition to the ministries in his new city, McDonald is organizing sports camps back home in Essex County, N.J., and working in Pauley's Island, S.C., to build a facility that will train ex-convicts to work in the recycling business, learn small-engine repair and carpentry, prepare them for ap- prenticeship programs and teach them entrepreneurial skills. "I've never been incarcerated," Mc- Donald said, "but I know what it's like to be in bondage." That's why no matter what he's doing, McDonald tells his story. "That's what it's all about," he said. "Having people in the room hear your story and giving them something to identify with. If they can't identify, they take nothing away. "I'm always as transparent as I can be. It's cleansing for me. When I give myself away, it's cleansing."