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September 11, 2025 • 14 mins
Dr Jeff Jordan "Dr. J", director of Operations at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hamilton is joined by Dean Bruewer to promote the Great American Bike Rally on Sep. 13, 2025 in Hamilton. Starting point is at The Casual Pint at 130 River Front Plaza. Non-competitive, for all ages, beautiful views of the scenic Miami River Trails to Fairfield.

Website: Boys & Girls Clubs of Hamilton, Ohio
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, this is iHeart Cincy, a tri state public
affairs show here in Cincinnati. My next guests are here
to give you all the information about a fund and
a fund raising bike rally for all ages next Saturday
in Hamilton. Hi guys, I'm Sandy Collins.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
So my name is Jeff Jordan.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm the director of operations for the Boys and Girls
Club of Hamilton.

Speaker 4 (00:22):
And I'm Dean Brew. I'm the guy that just did
the Great American Bike Rally.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, nice to meet you both. Thanks for doing this.
Doctor Jay, as you like to call yourself. Tell me
about the Boys and Girls Club of Hamilton and what
you guys do out there.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
So, the Boys and Girls Club of Hamilton been in
existence for over seventy ish years. We are in after
school program. We have five different sites right now, so
we're growing. So we do everything from stem to education

(00:58):
to make sure that our kids have fun. If our
staff can't have fun, we don't know how to teach
our kids to have fun. And that's what keeps everybody
come back into the Boys and Girls Club.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
What constitutes membership there in the Boys and Girls Club
is it based on anything in particular?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
So we are completely free after school site. So only
thing that we need for the parent or caregiver to
do is come sign them up. All of our meals
are free for our kids. Any field trips that we
decide to do are free to our kids, and we
are open depending on when school get out or win.

(01:36):
The clubs open from two thirty to six thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
So we'll talk about more about the actual locations of
those clubs and where you can get involved, et cetera.
But let's talk a little bit about the Great American
Bike Rally which is coming up. And this is going
to be fun because it is a casual ride. Dean
Brewer is here with us, who is organizing this event,
American Bike Rally. Tell me a little bit about it.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
Well, let's start with a little history saying if we
can so, Like I said, I'm a retired ex engineering
manager out of Johnson and Johnson. If you know anything
about Johnson and Johnson, they probably do more per capita
and community service in the Cincinnati, probably in the US
than any other company i'm aware of. They continually supported
it's in their legacy. And myself, I'm one to ten kids,

(02:24):
so we didn't have a lot when we grew up.
So our whole idea is we got to give back.
You know, when you're retired, you got time to give back.
We chose the Boys and Girls Club as our charity because,
quite frankly, we think they're the best example of an
organization that creates opportunities for youth, and I think that
is the answer to many of our problems, especially in

(02:45):
the US today.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Kids have to have something to do, they have to
have people they can count on, they have to have fun.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
The bike rally I to go into the bike rally history,
but some of the funding we provided so far we
created some gardens over at some of these clubs so
that they can plant food, harvest food, to eat the food,
learn about sustainability. It's just been tremendous. It's an opportunity.
We create opportunities for them to learn. The bike Rally
we started. I retired about nineteen twenty nineteen, so we
started it myself and another gentleman, mister Bill Resh, who

(03:14):
still works with us. We both had issues, and especially
him as a cancer survivor, and we thought, you know,
we've only got so much time left, let's do something
that makes sense for the kids. They said, We're gonna
we like bike riding. We you know, we ride around
the country. We've been from Pittsburgh to DC on trails.
We go, I go to Cleveland every year from Hamilton,
Ohio on a trail. Let's figure out a way to

(03:36):
use bicycling cycling as a fundraiser. Had some input from
several people, including the Joe Knuxall Fields from Sonya Cranebule
with the Kettering Foundation. We were advised certain ways. We said,
do we should we be a nonprofit or not? We
said maybe not a nonprofit, but we'll partner with a nonprofit.
So we partner with Hamilton Community Foundation. There are pass

(03:58):
through nonprofit and we said, well, let's do a bike
ally that connects two cities, Hamilton and Fairfield. And what's
the great asset we've got.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
We've got the Great Miami River Trail. It connects the
two cities.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
So let's put something together and let's take a ride
on the trail. So our first year in twenty nineteen,
we had about eighty riders. I think we were able
to donate over six thousand dollars that year. We rely
on our sponsors obviously to get quite a bit of
our money, but we also rely on our riders.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
We charge them thirty five dollars.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
They get a tremendous T shirt and not only that,
but we've got all these great dwarf prizes that they
can pick up when they come back. And the ride
consist of two things. You can ride as far as
you want on the trail up to twenty two miles,
or you can ride with the kids twenty kids from
the Boys and Girls Club who we give bikes to.

(04:51):
They can ride four miles to Flubs to get free
ice cream and pizza and come back. And there's a
very interesting kicker we just added about two years ago,
have what we call a poker ride. So if you
ride certain distances, you can pick up enough cards to
make a poker hand and if you have a winning hand,
you could win three hundred or one hundred and fifty

(05:11):
or fifty dollars.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Let's get back to you, doctor j. How many kids
does the Hamilton Boys and Girls Club help?

Speaker 3 (05:19):
So we serve about three hundred kids today and these are,
you know, kids from all walks of life that live
in every neighborhood around the Hamilton City. And now we
have ventured out into Hamilton County at the Wooden Woods

(05:39):
Middle School, So we wanted to afford you know, opportunities
for the kids that live in that area, and that
site mostly catered to our teams. We're providing a space
where kids do not have to be outside, do not
have to be in krogers, do not have to be
you know, getting into trouble, and you know, being super

(06:03):
proud of the staff who provide that safe, safe and
clean environment for them to drive, you know, every day
and make it enjoyable for them to come back every day.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
When you're talking about helping kids today, there's there's so
many different challenges that they face. Then they did a
generation to go, two generations ago, three generations ago. What
are the kids facing these days that are let's say,
I don't know, eight to fifteen, that's maybe the harder
or different than what we saw maybe when we were kids.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
That is a good question me. So I think a
lot of this gear.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Store peer pressure, and you know, if you are with
their own crowd, you know, there's a lot that can
happen with that.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
We use this as a no bully, zero tolerance bullied z.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
You know, we make sure that this is the safe
space for everybody to be themselves to say what they
need to say, you know, being respectful. We want them
to be productive citizens, and those are the things that
we teach them within the club to be effective and
productive citizens when they leave here. And we also want

(07:22):
them to increase their education. We offer that homework help,
we offer reading. We want to make sure that we
are supplementing what they're having in school, not for this
to be an extension of the school. We make sure
that they have gym time. We want to make sure
that they release some of that energy that they have,

(07:43):
so you know, they run around the club, they have fun.
We bring in stem you know, to make sure that
they get that side. They have the balaid. So we're
exposing them to a lot of different things in the club,
but also using our community partners to say, hey, these
are fields that you could possibly go into. These are

(08:06):
people that you can look into these fields and say, hey.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
I didn't know that. You know, if I like to
draw that that can be a career for me.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Connecting them to those people and hopefully letting those people
become mentors and you know, using those volunteers, using all
of our community partners. We want to be good stewards
to our community partners.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Now, where are the locations to get their kids involved
with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hamilton.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yes, so we have five locations.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
The first location is on Grand Boulevard in Hamilton, Ohio.
The second location is at nine fifty eight East Avenue.
And then again, like I said, we have three school
sites and two of them this year is new, I believe,
and don't quote me. Two of them is new or
one of them is new. This is my third week here.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Welcome, and.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
It is overwhelming when you get first started. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
Yeah, and I'm gonna add a few things when he
gets done, because he's left one thing out is very
important to keep.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Going go ahead.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Then we have our middle school site, which is at
witten Woods Middle School and that is predominantly team based.
And then we have two elementary school sites, one at
Linden Elementary and the other one at Highland Elementary. So
those are the five areas that we are located in.

(09:36):
We are looking to expand more into the areas that
you know need us most, but we want to do
that gradually. And you know, of course when you expand
you need funding to do that.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
Sandy, just just a quick the dynamics of the Hamilton Club.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
It's very important to understand.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
And I've been involved here for maybe six years, seven
years now, but the club was at a kind of
a stat His quote back in nineteen brought this new
person in. His name is Tommy Johns. Came out of Chicago.
He was a boys and girls club, but a director
down in Florida. Tommy john is the CEO. And since
that time, the growth and the development of the clubs

(10:15):
in Hamilton, Ohio have been astronomical. Yes, eight increase. That's
why I do what I do. We want to support
that active. We want to continue to create those opportunities
for these kids. As doctor j was saying, I couldn't
say it better myself. It's like they come here, they
learn different experiences. They go out into field trips, they
see different things. They say. I mean, I've heard stories

(10:37):
where some kids in Cincinnati, you talk to him about
the Atlantic Ocean, they think the Ohio River is the
Atlantic Ocean.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
And that's very true.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
So these kids are getting the experience of their life.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, some kids have never left Hamilton.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
We're providing those opportunities by taking them elsewhere, just so
they could see, you know, what else is outside of
the streets of Hamilton that they can venture out to.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Along with saying that we want to also.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Provide all the services through Hamilton so that they can
know how great their city is and what opportunities they
have there they can explore.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Hey, mom, we went there with the club. Can we
go there this weekend?

Speaker 3 (11:23):
You know, they got this restaurant, they got this arca place.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
You know, we want to expose them to.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Doctor j let me ask you this. You know have
been a parent, My daughter is an adult now. For
parents who necessarily don't need daycare but they want their
kid to be involved, do they have to go every
day or can they just come in one two days
a week.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
Is there any.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Commitment on a family's part to be a part of
the Boys and Girls Club of Hamilton.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Good question.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Right now, we have so many families who want to
be a part.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
That we are getting waiting lists.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
You know, there's no income verification, there is no status
that you have to have in order to come to
the Boys and Girls Club. Like I said, it is
totally free. It used to be a cost associated with
the after school program. It used to be a cost
associated with the summer program.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
But this is absolutely free.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
We wanted to take that barrier down and remove any
type of financial barriers for people to come, but we
just asked that if you do come, you know, at
least three times a week. Your attendance means a lot
when you are getting sponsored, when you're getting financial when
you're getting grants, stuff like that. So we want to

(12:38):
make sure that we are providing services to the most
individuals possible.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Right well, it sounds like we just need to get
the word out there, guys, and so we're going to
do that today right here on iHeart since doctor j
from the Hamilton Boys and Girls Club and Dean Brewer,
who is one of the volunteers to put together the
Great American Bike Ride. Guys, thank you so much for
being here. Thanks for putting the time and the effort

(13:05):
and the care and concern into the kids of this community.
If you want to find out more, how do we
get registered, Dean, the.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
Best place to do is just go to the web
Great American Bike Rally dot com.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Doctor Jeff Jordan and Dean Brower, thank you so much
for being on Iheartsincy and have fun at the ride.

Speaker 4 (13:22):
Thank you, Bennie.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
We appreciate you. All right.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Well, that wraps it up for this week. Hey listen,
I was thinking about doing a new feature here called Vocations.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
I want to talk to.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
People about their life passion and why they chose the
career that they chose and how it's worked out for them.
If you're interested in being a guest on that show,
won't you send me an email tell me a little
bit about yourself, what your educational background is, and how
you became the person that you are. Send it to
Iheartsincy at iHeartMedia dot com. That email address is Iheartsincy

(13:56):
at iHeartMedia dot com. I'd love to hear from you. Also,
to hear from you. If you're a nonprofit you'd like
to talk about what's coming up in your calendar, Let's
hear from you too. You can hear the show on
the iHeartRadio app. It's absolutely free. Just download the app
and look for podcasts. I'm Sandy Collins. Hope to see you.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Here next week. iHeart Cincy. It's a production of iHeartMedia Cincinnati.
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