LAKE CITY, SC (WBTW) – A Lake City business owner is changing the lives of young men in the area one car wash at a time.

Tharrington “Notch” Harris and his brother Rodney have owned Notch Hand Car Wash for 21 years. He said he started the business with the idea of mentoring young men.

“When I was a teenager a guy gave me a job when he had a car wash,” Harris said. “So that gave me the motivation to open my own car wash and once I saw how he was helping the kids that gave me the idea of wanting to help.”

Harris said having a mentor in his life helped him during a time when he needed it most, so he wanted to return the favor.

“When I was younger, I went on the wrong path and dealing with drugs and being involved in gangs, but then I had older guys as role models that showed me, ‘Look you can do this that way or this way and it will work out,’ and that’s actually what I’m striving to do now before they even get in a situation like that. I don’t want them to go through what I had to go through,” Harris said.

He said his goal is to teach them important life lessons about saving money and being a gentleman, and to also motivate them to be better people.

“Throughout the week when they work I’ve got them all bank accounts,” he said. “It shows them what to put away and what to keep to manage money so when they get older they have an understanding of how to spend money, why to spend money, and when not to spend money.”

Harris also said that during the week he and his brother take the employees to events.

“We take them to different events with other kids and then we take them to events with adults that have businesses to show them how they started their business and what it took them to get where they’re at,” he said.

He stressed the importance of it never being “too late” for someone to make a positive change in the direction of their life.

“It’s to show them how to work, how to manage money, and also how to be men,” he said. “They’ll come and say, ‘Mr. Notch, Can we change?’ I’m like, ‘It’s never too late, anyone can change.’”

Harris said he wants kids to keep on a straight and narrow path and to encourage them to work harder. Harris has mentored many teenagers over the past 21 years and said some of them, like 24-year-old Arkel Cameron, still come back to visit.

“It always gave me something to look forward to in the morning,” Cameron said. “Most days I didn’t wake up with any money in my pocket so that gave me the opportunity to make something.”

Cameron said he met Harris when he was just 15-years-old and, at the time, was headed down a dangerous path.

“I was more on the rough side and didn’t listen,” said Cameron.

Cameron said without Harris, he wouldn’t have a bank account or his current job.

“Starting out here washing cars, I built myself up to working in the mechanic field and now I change tires and change oil and brakes every day,” the 24-year-old said.

Cameron said he’s grateful for the opportunity that was given to him to work at Notch Hand Car Wash, mostly because it provides a life for his two children, and will now give him the opportunity to mentor someone like him.

“The biggest thing I learned was to stay out of trouble, don’t do the wrong thing, and make money the honest way,” said Cameron.

Harris said he wants to raise money to build a youth center with a summer camp where they can play and learn about real-life situations.

Notch Hand Car Wash is located at 324 W. Main St., behind Randy’s Tire and Auto Center in Lake City.