Editor’s Note: When people in Scotts Valley and the San Lorenzo Valley give food and help to Valley Churches United Missions around the holidays, it’s often distributed quickly and without fanfare.
What follows is the brief story of Mike Liston, a former methamphetamine user who has been clean since 2003. Liston, a 41-year-old Brookdale resident, has been without work for nearly 18 months, but he volunteers at Valley Churches United Missions at least three days a week to stay busy.
“I’m on my last unemployment check,” Liston said Tuesday morning, Nov. 16, while looking over the piles of canned food in the basement of Valley Churches United Missions’ Ben Lomond pantry. “They can give you an extension, but I just don’t know.”
Liston is a convicted felon, stemming from using and selling methamphetamine in the Bay Area. But that’s in the past. After a 2003 stint at the Camp Recovery Center in Scotts Valley, he kicked his addiction. He’s paid all his fines and served his sentence, and for years, he’s tried to move on.
“It’s my past, and I’m not proud of it, and I wish I could get it expunged,” Liston said.
Today, he and his wife, Tricia, have a family of three — a 6-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 3 years and 6 months. He spends his days volunteering at VCUM and applying for new jobs, at the rate of two per week, as required by California’s unemployment bureau.
“It becomes monotonous, almost like a joke,” Liston said of the number of applications he has put in.
A rehabilitated family man, it’s the felony charges that hang over his head like a black cloud and keep him from a job.
Liston was employed at a local thrift shop, but he was let go amid a controversy.
He also attended adult school classes and learned skills to aid the elderly. However, when he took a Live Scan fingerprint test, the state alerted him he could not work as a caregiver because of his past.
“It’s the wagon I’m pulling,” he said.
Liston went to a lawyer, who charged $400 per hour, but after several visits, the attempt was getting nowhere and his wallet had thinned. He then went looking for a job that does not require a fingerprint scan.
But 18 months later, he’s still without work. Tricia Liston stands in line at the food pantry for aid from Valley Churches, and Mike Liston continues to apply for jobs.
“I can prove to anybody that I’m an asset to their company, if I can get in the door,” he said optimistically. “It’s going to be a lucky employer that hires me. I get it done.”
Liston said he can be trained to do anything except work in front of a computer. He sorts and helps manage the food pantry and has carpentry skills. And he’s become the go-to guy at the Ben Lomond nonprofit.
“He has been a lifesaver for me,” pantry manager Jane Hurlbut said. “I call him on short notice ,and he’s here.”
Hurlbut is happy to have Liston as a volunteer, despite his past.
“I suggested he approach a judge to take the felony off,” Hurlbut said. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s an A-1 guy.”
For his part, Liston said he simply wants to care for his family and work for a paycheck again.
“I’d just like to be given another chance,” he said.
At a glance
Upcoming Valley Churches United Missions events:
**6 p.m. Dec. 2: annual Angel Gala dinner and auction, Scopazzi’s Restaurant, 13300 Big Basin Way, in Boulder Creek — $55 in advance, $60 at the door
**3 to 6 p.m.: Moose Lodge prime rib dinner — for reservations, call 818-2097
**For information: 336-8258
