One Man's Journey to Schenectady

Some people may underestimate the power they possess in the palm of their hand. But not Reggie Harris of Schenectady.

Back in 2000, Reggie was homeless in New York City with a debilitating drug addiction. His mother had died and in just 3 months he blew his forty thousand dollar inheritance on crack cocaine. Reggie had hit rock bottom and he had a conversation with God.

“I wanted to die. I really wanted to die. So I said to Him, either take me or help me.”

A few days later while Reggie was panhandling in Brooklyn, Carl Dixon, a man visiting from the Capital Region, saw Reggie, reached out his hand to him and offered to change his life. Reggie accepted his help.

Dixon brought Reggie upstate to the Schenectady City Mission where the former drug addict started cleaning up his act. Fast forward 7 years and Reggie has a home, a fulltime job at the YMCA, and has kicked his old drug habit. In May, he graduated from Schenectady County Community College and has decided to dedicate his life to helping others the way someone helped him. A case manager at the Y and a volunteer at the same mission where he was once sought help, Reggie knows his mother is looking down at him and smiling because of the way he turned his life around.

A journey that all started in the hands of a stranger.