Dominick Jones-Moriarty and Warren Butler are the epitome of the saying "tough times don't last, but tough people do."

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette photos Dominick Jones-Moriarty, left, and Warren Butler have been nominated for their work with teenage boys at Allegheny Youth Development on the North Side, where they have been volunteering since 2002. Coming Friday: Jefferson Award winner Barbara Smith. Click photo for larger image.

These two young men could have easily used their personal struggles as an excuse to jump into an abyss already filled with others who let hard times get the best of them.

However, as youngsters, Mr. Jones-Moriarty and Mr. Butler were steered toward Allegheny Youth Development, a Christian-based organization that helps at-risk North Side teenage boys. As they've gotten older, they've volunteered countless hours to the program that helped turn them from two struggling boys into responsible young men.

Mr. Jones-Moriarty and Mr. Butler are two of seven recipients of the prestigious 2006 Jefferson Awards for Public Service. They will be honored at an awards dinner Jan. 25 at the Carnegie Music Hall, where Duquesne Light will present them with $1,000 to give to Allegheny Youth Development.

Over the past four years, the two young men have amassed 663 volunteer hours, developing and running AYD's basketball, Boy Scout, and fitness and weight-training programs. Last year, both averaged 17 hours per week in addition to holding down full-time jobs.

Mr. Butler, who has a 3-year-old daughter, works full time as a teacher's aide for Pittsburgh Public Schools. Mr. Jones-Moriarty, who also held that position with the school district, left to take a job with benefits at OK Groceries in the West End.

The two 22-year-olds have become surrogate fathers, brothers and uncles to the many boys they work with at AYD, providing a positive influence to counter the many negative ones the boys encounter.

Jefferson Award winner Dominick Jones-Moriarty, far right, has been volunteering since 2002 at Allegheny Youth Development, where, from left, Damon Goodwine, 15, Eric Thome, 15, and Adrian Jordan, 16, all of the North Side, work out. Click photo for larger image.

Both are taking a break from college right now but have plans to finish their post-secondary education.

Brian Foltz, AYD's executive director, nominated the duo, nicknamed Woo and Dom.

"We're trying to teach boys how to become men, and these guys are classic examples of what a real man does," Mr. Foltz said.

Both have benefited from the program, he said, and now are giving back to the organization and their community.

"Dom and Woo are inspiring kids on the North Side who are already saying, 'I'd like to do what these guys are doing,'" Mr. Foltz said.

Despite the accolades, both are humble about the work they're doing.

"A lot of the things they go through, I've been through," said Mr. Jones-Moriarty about the youngsters. "I tell them it's a blessing to give back to them."

Neither young man has had an easy road. Bad home situations resulted in both being taken in by others. Mr. Jones-Moriarty ended up in foster care at age 5 because of his mother's drug problem.

"I was bouncing from foster home to foster home," he said. "I maybe went to about four or five different homes."

Bouncing around with him was his older brother. When he was 8, Mr. Jones-Moriarty ended up with the couple who would adopt him, Rosemary and John Moriarty. His brother was sent to another home.

However, he said, he keeps in touch with all his family members, including his mother, and his siblings, the youngest of whom attends AYD.

Rosemary Moriarty is the principal of Miller African-Centered Academy in the Hill District. John Moriarty also works for the Pittsburgh school district.

"It was kind of rough the first years," Mr. Jones-Moriarty said.

It took a while for him to get used to the structure and for him to trust that the Moriartys loved him and planned to keep him. They adopted him when he was in eighth grade.

"That's kind of when I started trusting them, because they couldn't actually give me up then," Mr. Jones-Moriarty said.

When he was 11, he got involved in AYD, which offered so many programs it kept him occupied every day after school.

It was while participating in AYD that Mr. Jones-Moriarty met Mr. Butler. It was on a soccer field.

"He beat me by a goal with three seconds left on the clock," Mr. Jones-Moriarty said. "We've been close ever since then."

Mr. Butler, who came from a troubled home in Northview Heights, ended up living with Mr. Foltz when he got older.

"Trying to be a positive guy is hard when it's all negative around you," Mr. Butler said, adding that he'd lost a lot of friends to drugs, gangs and jail.

He considers himself one of the lucky ones in his peer group because he had both parents growing up. He said friends used to chide him about having it easier than they did because he had a father.

"We're still growing up in the same neighborhood, so everything wasn't peaches and cream," he said.

His mother told him about AYD, which he credits for teaching him how to deal with life's tough times.

"Life throws things at you; they're going to hit you and they're going to hurt, but you got to keep going," he said. He also found a role model in Roger Jones, who worked at AYD and was his teacher at Northside Urban Pathways Charter School.

"He is a very strong black man. He kept himself very clean. He explained to me everything ain't peaches and cream, but you have to take the punches as they come."

One of the punches thrown at him was a mother with a drug problem, which resulted in his leaving home at age 20.

"I knew I couldn't live with my mom anymore," he explained. For about a week, friends sneaked him into their homes.

After he explained the situation to Mr. Foltz, the AYD head offered to take him in.

Mr. Foltz, who was already caring for his 8-year-old godson, said it was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

"I was happy to have somebody I knew and trusted to stay at the house," he said. "Here is a guy who is very, very good at relating to kids."

Mr. Butler cared for the 8-year-old when Mr. Foltz was at work.

"I don't regret that move," said Mr. Butler, who has returned to living with his family in Northview Heights. "I learned a lot."