Zerola provides a unique role model

LYNN—He's remembered as a defiant student who was absent a lot and got poor grades. A lost, angry young boy who clashed with students and teachers. But in Gary Zerola, a 1989 graduate of Lynn Vocational Technical High School, teachers also saw glimmers of intelligence, wit and charm.

"He had a gift of persuasion," said Helen Breen, an English teacher at Lynn Tech for 30 years. "Now, he's using it for the good. I was concerned at one point maybe he wouldn't."

Zerola, the youngest of seven children, grew up on the tough streets of Lynn. He was placed in foster care at age 3 and lived in a number of different homes, as well as with his grandmother. At one time, acquaintances said, he was living out of a car. He found permanent placement with a foster family at 14.

Today, Zerola, 27, is an assistant district attorney for Essex County, assigned to Lynn District Court. He's been working with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and the state Department of Social Services on a foster care initiative called "Every Child Counts." Last December, he organized an event called "One for the Kids," raising $10,000 to provide winter clothes and holiday gifts for foster children. He's a member of the Kids Net Council. And he's become a popular spokesman for foster care, appearing at venues from Holy Cross College to Lynn Tech, where he recently delivered the keynote address at graduation.

"Some of the faculty thought it was risky, that based on his past it might turn into something not at the level we wanted," said Chris Speropoulous, an electronics teacher and Zerola's mentor at Lynn Tech. But, he said, the speech "was amazing."

"He told the kids, 'If you knock on the door of opportunity and no one answers, knock it down.' The kids went crazy," Breen said. "He was so powerful. He motivated those kids from the neighborhood. He's the best speaker we ever had."

Afterwards, students crowded around Zerola. Speropoulous heard one say the speech had meant a lot to him, that he was going through something similar and "it's nice to know I can get by and get on with my life."

"He had all those kids mesmerized," said Andrew Politis, an electronics teacher at Lynn Tech. "Never did I think anybody like that would come as far as he has."

Zerola talks only of "family problems" in a general way. "I never get specific," he said, adding his mother, with whom he is close, lives in Lynn. His father, he said, was a "nonfactor."

Zerola was 3 when he and his siblings were placed in foster care. Some homes were in Lynn, some were in other communities. The brothers and sisters were split up. "It was difficult to maintain family ties," he said. "Once I went to a foster home where my sister was, but I hadn't seen her in six months."

A number of the homes were good, Zerola said. Others were not. Then, at age 14, he was placed with Robert and Mildred Bowes in Lynn. He stayed with them for 11 years, leaving at age 25 after earning bachelor's, master's and law degrees from Suffolk University.

"My foster parents saved my life," Zerola said. "Who knows where I'd be without them. I might be dead. I might be in jail." Instead, he said, their "strong guiding hands and caring hearts" pointed him in the right direction.

Robert Bowes, 71, an attorney and assistant counsel to the Massachusetts Senate, said Zerola was "a typical 14-year-old, easily persuaded in the wrong direction. But with some discipline and advice he's done very well."

Bowes emphasized that while he and his wife offered guidance, the rest was up to Zerola. "He's done it with very little help from anyone. He had the desire," Bowes said. "I think we motivated him a bit, but he's a capable kid and once he was off and running he did it on his own."

In addition to his foster parents, Zerola gives credit to three teachers at Lynn Tech -- Speropoulous, Politis and Breen. "They didn't take any guff from me," he said.

Breen, for one, acknowledges Zerola "drove me crazy." But, she said, he was also bright, verbal, charming and had a way of winning people over. Speropoulous also saw something special in the young boy. "He was very difficult, but for some reason I connected with him," he said. "He was obviously very talented."

Speropoulous said he adopted a "tough love" approach. One day he presented Zerola with two tests. One was graded 17, the other 100. Both were Zerola's. "I said, 'What's going on with you? These are opposite ends of the spectrum. If you are capable of doing this, why are you doing this?' " Speropoulous recalled. "He later told me it made him stop and think about what his capabilities were."

On Speropoulous's recommendation, Zerola received a conditional acceptance into the engineering program at the Franklin Institute. He transferred to Suffolk University to study communications and journalism and received his bachelor's degree in 1994. He earned a master's degree and a law degree from Suffolk in 1998, and was a commencement speaker at both graduations. He recently became an assistant district attorney.

"I'd like to help kids who are starting down the wrong path and try to help the kids who have been victimized," he said. "These kids don't have voices, they are the most defenseless of society. If they are doing stupid things, it's just they haven't learned there are severe consequences."

He also wants to use his personal story to increase awareness of the need for foster and adoptive families. "Gary speaks from the heart and people hear that," said Irene Callahan, a foster care recruitment coordinator for DSS. "He has the experience and he genuinely wants to help. He's so very respectful."

She has enlisted Zerola's help in encouraging more people to take in children, especially in the cities of Lynn, Haverhill, Beverly, Salem, Gloucester, Lowell, Lawrence, and surrounding communities. The aim, she said, is to keep children in their own communities and, when appropriate, keep siblings together.

"I want people to say, 'I have a good home and an extra bed. I can help out one night a week or one week a month.' Even if they help out one kid for six months and never again, it's still huge," Zerola said. He added that the bad foster homes that attract attention are in the minority. "Foster parents are like lawyers and politicians, they are judged by the worst, not by the best," he said.

"If it wasn't for my foster parents I don't know what I would have done," Zerola added. "People need to step forward to provide safe homes to ensure these kids do well in their later years. They'll see the difference they are making isn't for a day or a month, it's for a lifetime. I'm living proof."

For more information on becoming a foster or adoptive parent, call 1-800-KIDS-508.