“She decided, a month before her baby was born, to do adoption,” McKoy said. “We would go speak at clinics later on after the adoption was done. We would tell our story to people. And they would always ask me what my first response was when she told me she wanted to do an adoption. I remember she was standing near the balcony. We had signed a contract to be on the MTV program ‘Teen Mom.’ MTV was getting ready to come and film. It was a month before she would deliver. She told me, ‘I don’t want to do that anymore because I want to go to college. I don’t want to be Samantha from “Teen Mom.”’ I told her it was fine. ‘We’ll talk to your aunt to see if we can get out of the contract because you did sign that contract. They are coming here in a couple of days.’ I was okay with that. But then she said, ‘I also want to give my son up for adoption.’ That just devastated me. I was upset. How was she going to adopt my first-born grandson? And I was thinking, ‘She doesn’t know what she is talking about.’ I was upset, but I didn’t tell her any of that. I called her dad and talked with him. I was mad and upset. He let me get everything out. And then after that, he said, ‘I know you are hurt and I know you are upset. But this isn’t about me and you. We need to support our daughter. Please support your daughter.’ And then he hung up on me. I got so mad at him. But he was right.”

Her daughter ended up giving the baby up for adoption and went to UW-Milwaukee

“My children were living their best lives,” McKoy said. “They left the house and I didn’t have to worry about them. And then I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do now?’ I was so used to fixing problems, doing this and doing that. I didn’t know what to do with myself.”

McKoy found out about United Way’s Boardwalk Academy through a social media posting by Joe Maldonado on social media. A nine-week program, Boardwalk Academy helped McKoy prepare for the first day of the rest of her life, bringing out her natural leadership and presentation skills and introduced her to a whole different world than what she was used to. It was redemption.

“Boardwalk was the turning point of me being able to focus on me for the first time and to really see what I was capable of doing,” McKoy said. “Boardwalk gave me the tools to tell my story and my testimony has really helped other people. Everything that I had learned in my life, Boardwalk gave me the tools to use that out in the community. And that is what I do. Now because of Boardwalk, it opened up so many doors. I’ve served on a lot of boards. I’ve been a commissioner for Affirmative Action. I’ve been chair for one of its subcommittees. I was chair for the Community Impact Advisors Council. I currently serve on United Way’s Law Enforcement Leaders of Color Collaboration.”

It was through the law enforcement committee that McKoy began her second career. She had been a program specialist at WHEDA. But an opportunity presented itself through a job opening at Briarpatch that Gloria Reyes, Briarpatch’s executive director and a member of the United Way committee told her about. Reyes heard McKoy’s life story and was moved.

“’I have a program at Briarpatch,” Reyes said to McKoy. “’It’s a parent support program. I think you would be a really good fit for that program.’ I was in banking. I hated that job, but it paid the bills. I looked at the program and job description. I was like, ‘This is me. I’ve been through all of that. I know I can help those parents.’ I was reading through the description and then I got quiet. I thought I wasn’t going to get it because it said that they wanted a bachelor’s degree. I called Gloria and said, ‘I really want this position, but it says that you guys want a bachelor’s degree and I don’t have that. She said, ‘You know what? Just apply and for the right person, I will waive that.’ I remember doing the interview at Briarpatch and I was so nervous. It was three people interviewing me and it was an hour interview. During the interview, I knew that I had won over two of the people, but Gloria had such a poker face that I didn’t know if she liked me or not. But I got the job at Briarpatch Youth Services and I am a parent support coordinator here. I’ve taken this program in more ways than anyone else has. I’ve really made it grow and I’ve really put my name out in the community.”

Among her accomplishments was getting the Challenge Academy — the program that helped turn her son’s life around — more involved in the Madison area, which involved taking three Blackhawk helicopters filled with community leaders up to Ft. McCoy to see what the program is all about.

“Since then, the numbers are growing,” McKoy said. “They aren’t where I want them, but they are growing. Now I speak to parents at the Challenge Academy on Reception Day. At the last one, I spoke to 300 youth. My son and I are going to be on the news next month to really push and talk about this program.”

And McKoy is taking her game to the next level. On September 25, McKoy will be starting her new job at center director for the Broadway – Lake Point – Waunona Neighborhood Center

McKoy is living her best life now, working and volunteering, even helping out at Broadway Academy, which gave her a new lease on life. McKoy is very open about where she has come from and where she is headed. And she has found a level of stability in her life and in the lives of the people around her that she had been missing her entire life.

“We used the most difficult time of our lives, the adoption, to speak to other people who were going through or thinking about adoption,” McKoy said. “And we were sharing our story with others. I always tell my children, ‘Don’t be ashamed of what we went through. What we went through is what made us who we are right now.’ We are very close and strong. We have Sunday night dinner together at Brandon’s. It’s myself, my daughter, her four kids, Brandon just had a baby and it’s his girlfriend and her parents. We all come together on Sundays. Sunday is the day for my family. Usually if people ask me to do things, I say, ‘No, Sundays call me on that day. They insist that I am with them on Sunday.”

Michelle McKoy has succeeded against incredible odds and she has dedicated her life to help others succeed as well.

Next Issue: Redemption