He brings a chance to job-seekers

VIRGINIA BEACH

The burgundy Expedition cruised along Newtown Road until Wesley Waites spied another target.

"Hey, man, did you have a job last summer?" Waites asked.

"Nope," 18-year-old Johntae Pinkney replied.

"Want one this summer?"

"Yep."

Waites then delivered his pitch and a pair of fliers.

"I'll get back atcha!" Waites roared as his one-man employment crusade moved on.

If Waites has his way, 100 Lake Edward neighborhood kids like Pinkney will be added to the work force this summer.

That's the goal of his Community Day/Teen Job Fair on June 13 at the Baker Crossing Arts Area.

Waites, 44, knows firsthand the challenges of landing work these days. He's "between jobs" and said he's been on five interviews the past few weeks without success.

"If I can't get a job, you can imagine what it must be like for kids to get a job," he said.

So far, five businesses have signed on, including heavyweights McDonald's and Chick-fil-A.

Waites said he hopes to have as many as 15.

The plan is for the businesses to do on-site screening and interviews and, by day's end, have 100 new employees.

"Look, I'm not trying to change the world," he said. "I'm just trying to make my neighborhood a better place."

A neater one, too. The day long activities will start at 8:30 a.m. with a three-hour neighborhood clean up. The teen job fair will follow at 1 p.m.

A Norfolk native, Waites said he can relate to growing up in one of the city's most rugged neighborhoods. He calls Park Place, where he spent his teen years, "the roughest in the whole wide world." He also acknowledges being part of the madness and even spending time in jail.

"Now the same stuff I ran away from, some of these kids are running straight into," said Waites, whose job fair fliers warn against wearing gang colors.

Next weekend's job fair is hardly Waites' first foray into helping his community.

For six years the self-described community activist and youth advocate volunteer ran the popular Street Ball Classic, which brought hundreds of ballers and would-be ballers to the neighborhood courts.

He's the founder of Men Leaving Legacies, an outreach group dedicated to making the community safer.

Waites said he believes putting young people to work can only help.

"They say the people in this community have a lot of needs," Waites said. "But everyone needs a job, right? We're going to try and take care of that right here."

Paul White, (757) 418-1447, paul.white@pilotonline.com