The Boys & Girls Club of Franklin/Williamson County is celebrating its 20th anniversary at the annual Steak & Burger Dinner at the Cool Springs Marriott on March 31. The event begins at 6 p.m. and will include a live and silent auction and feature the world renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers.

The club opened its doors in 1989 with only two staff members, a membership of 30 kids that attended four hours a day, three days a week and a mission to make a difference in the community by enabling all young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens.

A group of community members including Jimmy French, Ed Moody, Morgan Reynolds, Rick Moody, Jim Ferguson, Brenda Hyden, Charles Dibrell, Stan Marks, Carol Birdwell, Jim Gallery, Jim Fehrman and Larry Barnes recognized the need for an underserved pocket of children in Franklin’s Natchez Street area to have a safe place to go after school.

The group met with Charlie Finshum, then executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Middle Tennessee and now retired, who was looking to expand the footprint of the Middle Tennessee Boys & Girls Club. Together they began the development of that safe place where children could be involved in wholesome activities and learn life-enhancing skills.

“We did our homework,” Finshum said, “We looked at police statistics and education statistics and established a real need, especially for the underserved kids in the area.”

With the cooperation of the city, county, schools and other community members, the group secured the old Franklin High School building – called the Old School Board Complex on the lease paper, on Columbia Avenue.

“We renovated the building and worked with Parks and Recreation, who was already using the gym,” Finshum said. “We were allowed to use the gym in the morning and the afternoon. It was a true partnership with Williamson County, the Board of Education and the community. We had some wonderful people step up to the plate to make it happen.”

That first year, the club served four streets – Natchez, Park, Short Court and Spring, but by 1991 it was serving a larger part of the community, continually expanded as the need prescribed and finances allowed and in 2007 services were expanded to Fairview.

Carter Savage was the first director to pick up the ball and run with it, Finshum added. “Twenty years later [the club] is still moving forward.”

In 2000, the club moved to the county’s newly constructed Community Services Building, which was built with a section specifically designed to house the Boys & Girls Club.

In November 2001, through the generosity of NASCAR legend Darrell Waltrip and the MetLife Foundation, the Franklin Teen Learning Center opened in the basement of what had become the Optimist Club gymnasium.

With the loss of the Optimist facility in 2007, the county stepped up and offered the use of the gym at Academy Park until a new Teen Center can be built.

“It was a thrill to work with all the wonderful people in the city, the county, the Board of Education and the community,” Finshum said. “I can’t say enough about all the partnerships that made it possible to start the club and continue it. The club is a real credit to the Franklin community.”

In the past 20 years the club has served several hundred kids and so many of them have gone on to become active members in their communities, Finshum added.

Anitra Haynes Lee is one of those kids. She was 14 when the club opened. Her parents worked, which meant she was home alone after school. When the club opened it provided a supervised area to hang out and get her homework done.

“A lot of us could have gotten into things,” she said in a phone interview. “The Boys & Girls Club gave me a place to be and a lot of positive things to do after school. Mr. Carter was the first director – he opened us up to a lot of culture we never had before.”

Members learned about black history, which stimulated a sense of responsibility, community and hope, said Anitra, who was chosen as one of the first Youth of the Year.

“And it gave us something to do other than sports, in a positive environment,” she added.

The club gave Anitra and others direction and with tutoring, field trips and special guests, expanded their education. Tutors, field trips and special guests are still an integral part of the club’s program by helping members is areas parents are unable.
Vanderbilt graduates were regular visitors to the club when Anitra was there. They taught club members study skills, how to write term papers, the importance of doing homework, and gave an insight to possibilities they never dreamed about.

“They enriched and empowered us to be good role models for the younger kids,” she said. “They showed us Blacks in school – good schools and gave us inspiration. In the African American community, not a lot of us were going to college before the club. I’m glad I was able to experience the Boys & Girls Club.”

Anitra is juggling being a stay-at-home mom with two young children and college courses. She is now living in Mississippi and her older daughter is a member of the local Boys & Girls Club.

Ike Moore is living in Houston, Texas with his wife and two children. He is a youth minister in his church and is starting his own security business.

“The Boys & Girls Club kept me out of trouble,” he said in an interview by phone. “I was in an environment where it was easy to get in trouble.”

Ike said the club built up his character, exposed him to different opportunities and people and gave him an outlet where he could do positive things with other young men as they went through their right of passage. In his senior year, Ike was named Youth of the Year.

“Today I am a sociable, well-rounded person,” he said. “I learned how to be dependable and how to give back to the community. [The Boys & Girls Club] was a great experience – a good experience that kept me out of trouble. It’s easy for anyone to get into trouble if they don’t have something to occupy their time.”

Twenty-one year old Justin Curll is studying computer engineering in college and working part-time for UPS. He became a member of the Boys & Girls Club when he was 6 years old and for 10 years it was an important part of his life.

“I had friends in clicks doing things that got them in trouble while I was in the Boys & Girls Club,” he said. “It kept me out of trouble. They raised me – kept me level-headed.”

Curll remembered going to the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham when he was 9.

“At school we learned a lot about black history, but there’s nothing like going to the actual place where history was made,” he said. “Every summer we went places – Six Flags, the Martin Luther King Museum … they gave me a thirst for knowledge.”
Curll said Brother Humphrey, a former teacher, and William Tucker, the youth director, were his mentors.

“Brother Humphrey baptized me. He was my father figure and my mentor – he’s going to be the man who marries me,” he said. “Mr. Tucker is my mentor – he keeps me grounded.”

Brother Humphrey was strict and he had high standards. Shirts were tucked in, pants pulled up and members were respectful. If they needed to learn manners, Brother Humphrey was more than willing to teach them.

“He always said, ‘A hostile attitude, it will get you nowhere.’ He was tough.”

Curll recalled his first day at the club when he got in trouble and couldn’t go to the zoo.

“I never got in trouble again,” he laughed.

Curll visits the club whenever he can to let Tucker and the staff know how much he appreciates what they did for him while he was growing up.

Tickets for the Steak and Burger Dinner are available for purchase through the Boys & Girls Club office and at Reliant Bank’s main office located at 1736 Carothers Parkway, Brentwood, TN 37027. For more information about the Boy & Girls Club Steak and Burger Dinner, contact Peggy Smith at 790-6408 or Rosey Utley at 772-8807 or visit their Web site at www.bgcfwc.org.

 

The more than 130 children at Franklin’s Boys & Girls Club were more than excited.

They were gathered on the front lawn of the Boys & Girls Club located on West Fowlkes Street when three fire trucks pulled up with a bounty of gifts collected from the community.

Santa, the Franklin Fire Department and a couple of Titans cheerleaders helped pass out the presents.

“It’s fun to see lots and lots of little kids, that’s for sure,” Santa said.

This is the first year that the FFD has organized an event of this kind.

“The community always respects the fire department,” said David Edge, an engineer for the department. “We should’ve been doing something a long time ago.”

“I think it’s great. It’s a chance to give back in a different kind of way than we usually do,” said Bradley Craig, a firefighter paramedic who helped organize the event.

This event offered “just a sense of giving back,” Craig said. “It’s a chance to help the youth of a community.”

Edge said they came up with the idea to help the community in November.

The day after Thanksgiving, they dressed every hydrant with tags, which had the children’s names and their wish lists.

People were able to come by and pick up a tag from any hydrant at any city fire station, and then return the toys or clothing items.

Last week, the firefighters had a big wrapping party, and Capt. Clay Mackey, who also helped organize the event, stayed up making some of the snacks for the children.

“We plan on making this a staple in the community,” Edge said.

After opening a Nintendo DS gaming system, a case and two games to play on it, Jordan Webb was in shock. “Man, that’s crazy,” he said.

Shantell Flye, 9, sat on her new Glamour Girl bike and imagined riding down her street.

“I didn’t even ask for it!” she said.

Franklin Elementary student Janese Vaughn, 8, waited patiently as the firefighters found her presents.

Though the other children were already opening gifts, Vaughn waited.

When a firefighter came with her bag of gifts, Vaughn said, “Mamma Mia!”

Robert Bolin and his wife, Janine, along with their five children: Brittney, B.J., Piper, Savannah and Nathan, attended the event.

Robert and Janine were moved to tears of gratitude when they opened a box and saw a new plasma television, which was given to their family.

“Words can’t express it. These people are so nice. We’re just happy that everyone can sit in the living room and everyone can watch it. They just give and give and give. I don’t see how they do it,” said Robert Bolin.