Buffalo, N.Y. - Mike Taheri is one of the top criminal defense attorneys in town.
But over the past few years, Taheri has been spending less and less time on his law practice, and more and more time working on behalf of St. Luke's Mission of Mercy.
The Mission is located in the heart of Buffalo's East Side, it's home to 22 families, feeds hundreds of people a day, has its own version of a Goodwill for clothes, doesn't charge anyone anything, and does it all without a penny of help from government or the Diocese.
And that is where Mike Taheri comes in.
Taheri is constantly calling contacts in the community, looking for everything from donations to pay for private school tuition, to tickets to community events, to help pay for tuition costs at high schools and colleges.
"Hi Peter, it's Mike Taheri from St. Luke's."
"Hey Laurie, it's Mike Taheri, I'm calling on behalf of St. Luke's."
"Hey John, it's Mike Taheri from St. Luke's."
A few years ago, Taheri learned about St. Luke's and decided he wanted to help out.
Mike Taheri: "When I initially came down here, helping out to me was one, giving them a check or two, giving them some canned goods so I could feed some poor people and that was about it."
Scott Brown: "So that was supposed to make you feel good about yourself?"
Mike Taheri: "That was supposed to make me feel good about myself, but then I started coming to mass here with my wife, and she and I started talking with the people."
Taheri says when he and his wife started to meet the people who lived at the Mission, and those from the neighborhood who are served by it, they decided to try and live what Taheri calls a more "authentic" Catholic life.
Mike Taheri: "I didn't want anything easy, I wanted to deal with a place where the crime rate is high, unemployment is high, opportunities are low."
Scott Brown: "So this is not only talking the talk but walking the walk?"
Mike Taheri: "I want to walk the walk that's exactly right, I want to feel the pain and this is where you feel the pain."
And there is a lot of pain at St. Luke's.
The addicted, the mentally ill, the desperately poor, they all get a place to stay and something to eat at the Mission.
But amidst all of the poverty and the pain, there is beauty and promise.
It comes in the form of young people like Sydnie Perkins who has lived at the Mission with her mother her entire life- she was born eight days after the Mission opened.
Mike Taheri found that the more time he spent at the Mission, the more he came to understand why he was there: it was to help young people like Sydnie.
Mike Taheri: "I could see that God said 'use the skills you've got, now use them for the Kingdom'.'"
Thanks to donations, Sydnie is starting her senior year at Holy Angels Academy in Buffalo where she's in the swing choir and an honor roll student.
Taheri helps young people like Sydnie -- yes by raising funding for them and giving them his time -- but also by perhaps giving them something even more important: hope and opportunity.
For Sydnie that means ensuring she'll go to college.
Scott Brown: "What has Mike done for you when it comes to checking out different colleges?"
Sydnie Perkins: "Mike has taken me to Niagara, Canisius, Fredonia and pretty soon we're going to St. John Fisher pretty soon to look at."
On this day, Taheri has discovered a scholarship program that he believes could cover four, full years of college for Sydnie.
Meanwhile, Tosha White thanks to help from Taheri, is already in college on a scholarship at Trocaire College.
She lived at the Mission for most of her life with her father who has a serious kidney condition.
Scott Brown: "Tell me what Mike has meant in your life?"
Tosha White: "Mike has been the mentor, the one that pushes me to do better in school. He's made me better as a person and every time, I keep coming back to education, education is the key and that's what I got from him."
Although the Mission is just a few miles away from Taheri's law office, t's a world away when it comes to the niceties of life.
For instance, at the Mission Taheri's "office" is often two chairs and a card table.
Every Wednesday, Taheri tutors Diego Reynoso a senior at Bennett High, another kid who lives at the Mission with his family.
Scott Brown: "Without Mike helping you where do you think you'd be?"
Diego Reynoso: "That's actually quite easy- I'd be a low ranking student, probably dropping out of school."
Agnes Leon lives at the Mission - she has 15 children. One of them, Viadel, showed a talent for art, and so this summer Taheri was able to get him into a one week art camp at the Albright-Knox.
And Viadel showed so much promise, that he'll be taking more classes at the Art Gallery this fall.
Scott Brown: "Do you and your wife almost consider them your kids?"
Mike Taheri: "Absolutely- the same things I gave to my two children, my two children were adopted, I try to give to these kids here."
Scott Brown: "Mike says he considers you guys like his real life children, do you consider that the case?"
Tosha White: "I can agree with that statement 100 percent. He tells me all the time, you guys are just like my kids, I wouldn't treat you any differently. If you guys ever need anything don't worry I would give it to you and I feel like he is another father figure in my life I really do feel it. If I needed anything I would definitely call Mike."
Before getting involved in St. Luke's, Mike Taheri had a full time law practice and taught at UB's law school.
Now though, he leaves his office every day by two o'clock and he has stopped teaching at the law school.
Scott Brown: "Honestly, what did it cost you in money to give that up?"
Mike Taheri: "Probably a $25,000-$30,000 a year job and I would not give it up for a second, not a second."
Scott Brown: "Is your life richer?"
Mike Taheri: "It's wonderful, look there are no bad days at St. Luke's -there are days that are tough, but there has not been a bad day at St. Luke's."
Scott Brown: "Is it heart breaking for you that you can help a couple of the kids, but there are hundreds more out there that you can't touch?"
Mike Taheri: "At St. Luke's you learn how to cry, if you don't cry you don't learn the pain of this population. It's just very sad to see these kids, there's just an absence of a support network for them, home life can be tough, street life can be tough, you got to cry, you got to feel it."
Scott Brown: "Why do you think Mike does what he does to help you guys out?"
Tosha White: "Honestly, I'm not even sure. I asked him one time, Mike why do you come here? You know you're a lawyer,a big shot and he told me he likes it here."
Diego Reynoso: "The first time I met Mike I had no idea why he was doing this. You don't really get much rich people here trying to help people out. It's a rare thing honestly, now I understand he cares about trying to help people."
And so, it turns out that although Mike Taheri came to St. Luke's to help others ... In the end...he wound up helping himself even more.
Mike Taheri: "This is really the best experience my life, wouldn't change it, wouldn't change a minute of it. I love it, I love it. I need to be at St. Luke's, St. Luke's doesn't need me."
If you'd like to learn more about St. Luke's, check out their website at: www.stlukesmissionofmercy.org/