Platinum Pools Puts Kids from Troubled Pasts on Paths to Brighter Futures

When Scott Waldo thinks about all the kids he’s helped over the years — and he has more than 400 to choose from — two in particular stand out.

There’s the 13-year-old boy who had been so brutally abused by his father that he needed surgery to avoid a lifelong disability. Then there was the 15-year-old girl who had been sexually abused by her mom’s boyfriend. She had attempted suicide. Shy at first, she eventually warmed up to Waldo, and he set her on a path to success. Today, she works full time, has a savings account and is set to graduate from Sam Houston State University.

Waldo’s foundation, Smiles & Dreams, helps young people with troubled pasts to see brighter futures, providing them joy along the way.

“It’s humbling to me because it brings you back to reality that life isn’t great everywhere, but there’s always an opportunity to give back and pay it forward,” says Waldo, CEO of Platinum Pools, a PSN Top 50 Builder based in Houston. “We can get these kids to keep dreaming towards something better than what they had.”

The builder began what would become a major philanthropic undertaking by volunteering at a local shelter for troubled youths. He’d treat the residents to dinners and shopping excursions. His generosity became legendary.

“Kids would show up and they would go, ‘Are you that rich white guy that everybody talks about in the foster care system?’” Waldo says with a laugh.

But more than clothes, fancy dinners and toys, orphans really needed a place to call home after they’ve aged out of the foster care system. So Waldo built a house that accommodates 28 young adults. They can live there as long they attend school or work, and remain drug-free. Annual golf tournaments raise between $85,000 and $100,000, which Waldo will match to support the program.

He remains close to many of the Smiles & Dreams graduates, one of whom he’ll walk down the aisle on her wedding day.

There’s also the dog sanctuary. Waldo lives part-time in Puerto Rico, where he rescues abandoned dogs and sends them to no-kill shelters in the U.S. His ultimate goal is to someday merge both his philanthropic efforts. He envisions a program in which young people without parents care for dogs without homes.