New luxury car detailer hiring Atlanta water boys to teach them valuable skills

ATLANTA — A reformed felon is on a mission to help get the Atlanta water boys off of the streets.

The phenomenon of teens selling water along metro Atlanta streets has sparked safety concerns for a lot of drivers. But now, those teens may have the opportunity to learn skills that could help them with future business ventures.

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Channel 2′s Michael Seiden was in Buckhead, where Myron Fountaine is teaming up with the owner of a brand-new car detailing shop to help employ the water boys and perhaps put them on a completely different path.

Onsite Shine, a luxury detailing car studio, is in the process of hiring at least 30 young people before the shop opens next month at the intersection of West Paces Ferry and Northside Drive.

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Fountiane was incarcerated on vehicular armed robbery charges when he was just 19 years old. He went on to become a motivational speaker and “prison prevention specialist” who goes by the name “The Prison Doctor.”

Fountaine has teamed up with the shop’s owner, Jim Thomas, to empower at-risk kids and adults.

“We just want to try to transform their lives and prevent them from going to a place I went to,” Fountaine said. “Jim has offered Onsite Shine as a place where I can now mentor kids and hire them to work here, and pay these kids up to $15 per hour.”

Fountaine said that the teens could potentially make even more money if they graduate to more complex skills like detailing and waxing.

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Thomas said he thinks that everyone deserves a chance at success.

“My heart really reaches out to those folks, because I think the business that I’m in can offer a lot to train someone to do something that they really love, like I do,” Thomas said.

Teens that have already been hired said it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.

“I feel way better about myself,” one teen employee of the shop said. “I feel like I can take my life in a whole other direction.”

Employees who help train the teens are also required to take part in a mentoring program after work.

Buckhead leaders to discuss possibly banning ‘water boys’ Tomeka Pless sat down with Channel 2 Action News on Wednesday to talk about how her son’s life was cut short.

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