The Aurora-Golden Triangle Sertoma Club has had scores of Service to Mankind honorees. But none like Damon West.

The former Thomas Jefferson High and University of North Texas quarterback has seen the highs of elite athletic performances and the lows of career-ending injury and subsequent drug addiction and criminal life. That, and all the related ills that go along with it.

But Damon West, drawn to the lights of faith and service, climbed out of the deep, dark hole of addiction, crime and prison to reclaim his life. Better yet, he’s embraced his second chance to do good by taking his message to young people like his old, better self, premier college athletes who may feel they’ve beaten the world, but who face temptation and potential ruin every day.

“God has opened a lot of doors for me,” he said in accepting his award this week. God has opened a lot of doors for everybody, athletes and non-athletes, rich and poor, talented and less talented. The difference between West and others is that he finally stepped through that door and embraced the potential on the other side.

That seemed unlikely when he was arrested July 30, 2008, for his part in the “Uptown burglaries” in a posh Dallas neighborhood. His part in those crimes was fueled by his hunger for addictive drugs, including methamphetamine.

But he’d started down the road to arrest and prison decades before, prodded along,  bad choice by bad choice. Even when doors opened in the professional, political and financial worlds, temptation and addiction hung over him like a shadow.

That’s what he’s talked about with college athletes at places like Lamar and Michigan State and Clemson, The University of Alabama and North Carolina and Florida State. He’s got speaking engagements at places like Texas and Texas Tech coming up.

He shapes his messages to best suit the ages and circumstances of his audiences, from children in junior high to grown men and women in college.

The college athletes get the harshest looks inside prison life, the toughest talks about the roads they need to avoid.

Along the way, he’s collected his own, unofficial fan club that includes some of the elite coaches in college football. Here’s one testimonial, from Alabama’s Nick Saban:

“I think his story is very compelling of the sacrifices he had to make to get his life back to where he needed to be,” said Saban. “But I tell you, the message of spirituality, the message about servant leadership (and) and helping other people, the power of controlling yourself, what you do and what you say, I think, is so important for these young guys to hear.”

They’ve heard. More will listen.

And maybe lives will change.