July 9, 2024 • 13 mins
Advocacy in Motion Red River - Join us as we shine a spotlight on the incredible nonprofits in Denison, Texas. In this episode, we feature the Boys and Girls Club of Denison, highlighting their impactful work and community contributions. Proudly sponsored by Niagara Water Conservation Company, we delve into how local organizations are making a difference.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome to Advocacy in Motion Red Riveredition. We're pleased to be here in
downtown Dennison at the podcast on MainStreet Split Windows Studios to give a vision
and a voice to nonprofit organizations andindividuals making a difference in the Sherman Dennisen
communities. And before I introduced myfirst guest today, I want to thank
(00:29):
our presenting sponsor, Niagara Conservation.Niagara is a leading manufacturer and distributor of
water saving, cost saving plumbing products, and we are especially proud of their
long history of supporting Advocacy and Motionand over fifty nonprofit organizations throughout the past
couple of years, including the twelvenonprofits in the Dennison Sherman area that they'll
(00:53):
be supporting over the summer. SoI want to thank Niagara, and I
want to welcome my guests. MarkEllison, the CEO of the Boys and
Girls Clubs of Sherman, Welcome Hark. Thank you. First of all,
I want to say thank you tellme for inviting them be down here to
talk about the Boys and Girls Clubof Sherman. And it's been a great
ride since I've been there. I'vebeen there about ten months right now,
(01:15):
at the Boys and Girls Club asthe CEO, and I'm excited about to
tell our story. I love yourmission statement. I saw it on your
website and I know a little bitabout Boys and Girls clubs and says a
place where one's background does not limittheir potential in that regardless of where you
come from or challenges you face,we believe that every youth deserves equal access
(01:36):
to opportunities and experiences. Is thatpretty well summed up? Is that the
big picture? Yes, sir,that's the big picture. One thing about
the Boys and Girls Club of Sherman, what I like to do, I'd
like to bring in. I liketo give every kid a chance. You
know, some kids are different,some kids need a little bit of loving,
some kids you need to be morestructured with. And we're going to
give every kid a chance opportunity tobe at the Boys and Girls Club and
(01:59):
do right thing. Oh that's terrific. Tell us about your background Boys and
Girls Club. How you get involved? Well, back in back in about
nineteen nineteen ninety eight, I wasjust in a program. I was volunteer
with the Boys and Girls Club,coaching basketball and football with the Boys and
(02:20):
Girls Club, and one day ourold CEO, Mike Delone, came and
say, hey, man, Ilike what you do here. I like
what you're doing with your kids.I would like for you to be your
be a program director. So beingin the corporate world working at a finery,
I was I had to think aboutit, pray about it, and
the opportunity came up and I becamethe program director for the Boys and Girls
(02:44):
Club back in nineteen ninety nine.I stayed there for nine years to two
thousand and eight, and in twothousand and eighty I went into the coaching
world and Ben was a girls basketballcoach at tex I'm a Christian for nineteen
years. All right, Now thetimes change in the world. You've been
(03:05):
back there a long time. Whatchange do you see in Boys and Girls
Club and their mission and your structurefrom then to now and then in the
future. Well, you know thebiggest deal that I see back you know,
back in the early two thousand,you know that old saying it take
a village to raise the kids.Now in the world, it takes more
(03:27):
than the village. Just take twoor three village to raise kids. Because
our kids now that comes to theBoys and Girls Club. You don't know
if they're raised by their grandparents,they uncles, they ain'ties or whatever.
They need more structure. You gotto love on them a little bit more
because our world is crazy right nowout there, So we just want to
be filling in the gaps that theparents and the grandparents need help with it.
(03:51):
How are is the Boys and GirlsClub of Sherman affiliate with or work
with other Boys and Girls clubs aroundthe country? Well, well we do.
We have the national headquarters which isout Atlanta, Georgia. We always
go every year where we have aSouthwest Conference and all the Boys and Girls
club from everywhere come together. Wego down myself go down to the Boys
(04:13):
and Girls Club National Headquarters with allCEOs. We come together, we discuss
different things what we can do tomake it better. We have our another
organization involved with the Boys and Girlswhat we call Texas Alliance. That's where
all CEOs and different people come inand try to structure what we need to
do in the Boys and Girls Club. What does it take to become employee
(04:36):
of Boys and Girls clubs or avolunteer? What do you look for there?
Well, what I look for asstrong young men and young ladies that
can come in and help us outto What we try to do is bring
them in. You have to beeighteen at the Sherman Boys and Girls Club.
Back before I got there, wassixteen. But it's hard for me
to bring a sixteen year old inthere to work. And we have fifteen
(04:58):
and sixteen year old kids that cometo the Boys Girls Club. So what
I try to do right now isbringing you have to be eighteen. You
have to pass our background check.Once you pack the past the background check,
you go through three days of trainingand letting you know dos and don'ts
of the Boys and Girls Club.And one thing we really push right now,
(05:20):
when you have young kids working foryou, they want to be friends
with the kids. You have todraw that line and say, hey,
I'm over you right now. Iunderstand Now, we'll come back to this
many times, but tell people howthey can get in touch with you,
how they can volunteer, and websitethat sort of thing. Yes, you
can go to our website as boySherman Boys and Girls Club dot org.
(05:42):
And when you go to our website, if you want to contact us,
you will see all of our pictureson the website. You can push you
whatever you need to be I wantto talk about. If you need to
talk to the CEO, Mark Ellison, you can email me or you can
also call me at nine O threeeight nine to two nine zero, extension
one oh one. I will answerany questions that you have. I know
(06:04):
they're talking about putting together this programwith you guys. You've been very receptive.
Everybody's answered the phone. You're rightsand which which is really great that
you're really involved with the community andreceptive to their calls and stuff. One
thing when I took over back inJuly thirty first of last year, one
thing I want to make sure weuh the Boys and Girls Club of Sherman
(06:27):
is we're about the community. Well, I want the community to know that
the Boys and Girls Club is Shermanis still there. We still got to
answer any questions. And one thingthat I pushed my staff to do is
always always return phone calls. Theydid, and trust me that they do.
You've got so many programs that youwork on on there's a couple of
(06:48):
them. Tell us a bit aboutthe programs and how you get involved with
the kids and things that you do. Well. Right now, well,
we got got going on right thereis our summer program. Uh. The
kids come in at seven point thirtyand they leave about five point fifteen.
Inside the club, we have alldifferent kind of activities they can do from
smart moves with girls. We havea new program that we're getting ready to
(07:12):
start off in the next couple ofweeks is about life the manhood that we
can train young men and teach themabout manhood. We take field trips on
Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays wego skating. Thursdays we go to the
movies and it's just different kind ofactivities we do. The kids rotate every
(07:33):
hour from the game room, thecomputer lab, the learning center, the
art room. We have two basketballgyms in there. And the special thing
that we have right now, wejust built a brand new playground at our
Boys and Girls Club for the firsttime ever. Where is the Boys and
Girls Club in Sherman. It's onfifteen hundred North Lucket Street in Sherman.
(07:57):
If anybody know when you go overto one the bridge going to Austin College,
as soon as you get over overtop of the bridge, you make
a rite and you see the Boysand Girls Club and you've been there quite
a while. What are some ofyour favorite success stories, What are some
of the things you can tell usit Well, you know, being the
CEO now, the best thing Icould see is when kids walk up to
(08:20):
you and give you a hug andsay thank you for being here for us.
But we have a lot of kidsthat have came through the Sherman Boys
and Girls Club that went on andplayed professional sports. You know, you
have a Kyle Crick who's now pitchingfor the Padres Pittsburgh Padres that came to
our club. You know, youlook back in the day that when the
(08:41):
Boys and Girls Club when I wasthere the first time, you had Hanna
Smith who was a kicker for theIndiapolis Coach. You have Charlie Johnson who
is alignment for the Indiapolis Coach.And you look at Chris Skiddings now who
is a play for the Houston Astrosas a first baseman. So we had
a lot of stories that come outto Boys and Girls Club. But I
(09:03):
think what's the biggest deal. Weforget about those stories because it was in
the past. So what we tryto do is bring keep bringing. I'm
trying to bring all that back tothe club and have these young men and
young ladies who's been to the Boysand Girls Club come and talk to our
young kids. Now, I freak, I ask girl, where's the age
group here? What's the age Wego from five years old by Boys and
(09:24):
Girls Club standards to eighteen, butat the Sherman Boys and Girls Club we
don't get a lot of eighteen yearold kids there, So our rangers from
about five to by fifteen fifteen.And how many kids are in the program?
Well, this summer here is probablyone of the biggest summers that we
have. Right now, we haveregistered to right now at two hundred and
sixty seven kids for the summer.We're doing on a daily basis, one
(09:48):
hundred and eighty nine kids a day. And what size is your staff?
That's a lot of kids. Well, right now we're running anywhere from twenty
five to twenty eight staff and theseare volunteers mostly our staff and volunteers.
Well, we got staff and volunteers. We got twenty eight le staff members
without the volunteers. Okay, verygood. What kind of support do you
(10:09):
need from the community. I knowthere's We always talked about fundraising, We
talked about support, what what doyou need from the community, Well,
I just need the community. Onething I want to community, you know,
just to believe in us. Believein us, to bring your kids
out and uh and let us showyou how we can care for them.
And uh. You know, whenyou talk about fundraisers, fundraiser is very
(10:31):
strange because my job is to goout and do the fundraisers. And we
have different groups and uh, differentpeople in my organization that write grants.
But my job is to go outand I go to businesses and ask them
for our help. And I havea great board. I have about twenty
five people on my board and theydo a great job of helping me fundraise.
All that is terrific. What aboutmess There's something that we talked about,
(10:56):
some things we want over some notes, But what what about mess that
you'd like for people to know about. I just like the people that a's
from our community to know that backin the past, the Boys and Girls
Club in Sherman I'm speaking for theBoys and Girls Club in Sherman Hill has
been a miss. People thought wewas closed. But since I've been there,
the community has been coming to backto the Boys and Girls Club.
(11:18):
People believing in the Boys and GirlsClub, and all I want to say
to the community is that we're here. We're here to help you raise your
kids and please have your youngsters comeout to the Boys and Girls Club.
That is that is histeric. Allright, one more time? Tell us
how people get involved? How canthey get in touch with you websites?
Yes, just come go to ourwebsite Sherman Boys and Girls Club dot org
(11:41):
and you can see you can reachme again at nine O three eight nine
two nine zero one nine, extensionone oh one. Or if you don't
need to talk to me, youjust want to ask you any questions about
our programs, call the same numbernine O three eight nine two none zero
one nine extension one oh two andasks for Alexis. That's my front office
managers and they can answer any questionsyou need. Okay, Before we clothes,
(12:05):
I like to just say one moremention for our prezenting sponsor, Niagara,
who makes all of this this possible. We mention their contribution to supporting
nonprofit organizations and their money saving plumbingproducts. But niagres also an innovative in
bathroom hygiene and experiences. So ifyou rate upgrade your bathroom experience and revolutionize
hygiene salo to more refreshing experience withNiagres hydro tech Aday seat. You can
(12:31):
get yours today on Amazon because Niagarawill save you a seat. Mark.
Thank you so much for joining usand being in all that you guys do
in the community in the future withBoys and Girls Club. Well, no,
thank you too. Thank you andthank you to the sponsors that is
helping you put this on. Thisis great for our community to be able
to come and tell our story ofwhat's going on in our community and at
(12:54):
the Boys and Girls Club. AsSherman, I appreciate you for inviting me
and let me know what I cando in the future for you. Okay,
thank you, and thank you toChris Remain and the people here at
Split Window for putting us on andhelping us get the message out. Thank
you again. Thank you.
Welcome to Advocacy in Motion Red Riveredition. We're pleased to be here in
downtown Dennison at the podcast on MainStreet Split Windows Studios to give a vision
and a voice to nonprofit organizations andindividuals making a difference in the Sherman Dennisen
communities. And before I introduced myfirst guest today, I want to thank
(00:29):
our presenting sponsor, Niagara Conservation.Niagara is a leading manufacturer and distributor of
water saving, cost saving plumbing products, and we are especially proud of their
long history of supporting Advocacy and Motionand over fifty nonprofit organizations throughout the past
couple of years, including the twelvenonprofits in the Dennison Sherman area that they'll
(00:53):
be supporting over the summer. SoI want to thank Niagara, and I
want to welcome my guests. MarkEllison, the CEO of the Boys and
Girls Clubs of Sherman, Welcome Hark. Thank you. First of all,
I want to say thank you tellme for inviting them be down here to
talk about the Boys and Girls Clubof Sherman. And it's been a great
ride since I've been there. I'vebeen there about ten months right now,
(01:15):
at the Boys and Girls Club asthe CEO, and I'm excited about to
tell our story. I love yourmission statement. I saw it on your
website and I know a little bitabout Boys and Girls clubs and says a
place where one's background does not limittheir potential in that regardless of where you
come from or challenges you face,we believe that every youth deserves equal access
(01:36):
to opportunities and experiences. Is thatpretty well summed up? Is that the
big picture? Yes, sir,that's the big picture. One thing about
the Boys and Girls Club of Sherman, what I like to do, I'd
like to bring in. I liketo give every kid a chance. You
know, some kids are different,some kids need a little bit of loving,
some kids you need to be morestructured with. And we're going to
give every kid a chance opportunity tobe at the Boys and Girls Club and
(01:59):
do right thing. Oh that's terrific. Tell us about your background Boys and
Girls Club. How you get involved? Well, back in back in about
nineteen nineteen ninety eight, I wasjust in a program. I was volunteer
with the Boys and Girls Club,coaching basketball and football with the Boys and
(02:20):
Girls Club, and one day ourold CEO, Mike Delone, came and
say, hey, man, Ilike what you do here. I like
what you're doing with your kids.I would like for you to be your
be a program director. So beingin the corporate world working at a finery,
I was I had to think aboutit, pray about it, and
the opportunity came up and I becamethe program director for the Boys and Girls
(02:44):
Club back in nineteen ninety nine.I stayed there for nine years to two
thousand and eight, and in twothousand and eighty I went into the coaching
world and Ben was a girls basketballcoach at tex I'm a Christian for nineteen
years. All right, Now thetimes change in the world. You've been
(03:05):
back there a long time. Whatchange do you see in Boys and Girls
Club and their mission and your structurefrom then to now and then in the
future. Well, you know thebiggest deal that I see back you know,
back in the early two thousand,you know that old saying it take
a village to raise the kids.Now in the world, it takes more
(03:27):
than the village. Just take twoor three village to raise kids. Because
our kids now that comes to theBoys and Girls Club. You don't know
if they're raised by their grandparents,they uncles, they ain'ties or whatever.
They need more structure. You gotto love on them a little bit more
because our world is crazy right nowout there, So we just want to
be filling in the gaps that theparents and the grandparents need help with it.
(03:51):
How are is the Boys and GirlsClub of Sherman affiliate with or work
with other Boys and Girls clubs aroundthe country? Well, well we do.
We have the national headquarters which isout Atlanta, Georgia. We always
go every year where we have aSouthwest Conference and all the Boys and Girls
club from everywhere come together. Wego down myself go down to the Boys
(04:13):
and Girls Club National Headquarters with allCEOs. We come together, we discuss
different things what we can do tomake it better. We have our another
organization involved with the Boys and Girlswhat we call Texas Alliance. That's where
all CEOs and different people come inand try to structure what we need to
do in the Boys and Girls Club. What does it take to become employee
(04:36):
of Boys and Girls clubs or avolunteer? What do you look for there?
Well, what I look for asstrong young men and young ladies that
can come in and help us outto What we try to do is bring
them in. You have to beeighteen at the Sherman Boys and Girls Club.
Back before I got there, wassixteen. But it's hard for me
to bring a sixteen year old inthere to work. And we have fifteen
(04:58):
and sixteen year old kids that cometo the Boys Girls Club. So what
I try to do right now isbringing you have to be eighteen. You
have to pass our background check.Once you pack the past the background check,
you go through three days of trainingand letting you know dos and don'ts
of the Boys and Girls Club.And one thing we really push right now,
(05:20):
when you have young kids working foryou, they want to be friends
with the kids. You have todraw that line and say, hey,
I'm over you right now. Iunderstand Now, we'll come back to this
many times, but tell people howthey can get in touch with you,
how they can volunteer, and websitethat sort of thing. Yes, you
can go to our website as boySherman Boys and Girls Club dot org.
(05:42):
And when you go to our website, if you want to contact us,
you will see all of our pictureson the website. You can push you
whatever you need to be I wantto talk about. If you need to
talk to the CEO, Mark Ellison, you can email me or you can
also call me at nine O threeeight nine to two nine zero, extension
one oh one. I will answerany questions that you have. I know
(06:04):
they're talking about putting together this programwith you guys. You've been very receptive.
Everybody's answered the phone. You're rightsand which which is really great that
you're really involved with the community andreceptive to their calls and stuff. One
thing when I took over back inJuly thirty first of last year, one
thing I want to make sure weuh the Boys and Girls Club of Sherman
(06:27):
is we're about the community. Well, I want the community to know that
the Boys and Girls Club is Shermanis still there. We still got to
answer any questions. And one thingthat I pushed my staff to do is
always always return phone calls. Theydid, and trust me that they do.
You've got so many programs that youwork on on there's a couple of
(06:48):
them. Tell us a bit aboutthe programs and how you get involved with
the kids and things that you do. Well. Right now, well,
we got got going on right thereis our summer program. Uh. The
kids come in at seven point thirtyand they leave about five point fifteen.
Inside the club, we have alldifferent kind of activities they can do from
smart moves with girls. We havea new program that we're getting ready to
(07:12):
start off in the next couple ofweeks is about life the manhood that we
can train young men and teach themabout manhood. We take field trips on
Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays wego skating. Thursdays we go to the
movies and it's just different kind ofactivities we do. The kids rotate every
(07:33):
hour from the game room, thecomputer lab, the learning center, the
art room. We have two basketballgyms in there. And the special thing
that we have right now, wejust built a brand new playground at our
Boys and Girls Club for the firsttime ever. Where is the Boys and
Girls Club in Sherman. It's onfifteen hundred North Lucket Street in Sherman.
(07:57):
If anybody know when you go overto one the bridge going to Austin College,
as soon as you get over overtop of the bridge, you make
a rite and you see the Boysand Girls Club and you've been there quite
a while. What are some ofyour favorite success stories, What are some
of the things you can tell usit Well, you know, being the
CEO now, the best thing Icould see is when kids walk up to
(08:20):
you and give you a hug andsay thank you for being here for us.
But we have a lot of kidsthat have came through the Sherman Boys
and Girls Club that went on andplayed professional sports. You know, you
have a Kyle Crick who's now pitchingfor the Padres Pittsburgh Padres that came to
our club. You know, youlook back in the day that when the
(08:41):
Boys and Girls Club when I wasthere the first time, you had Hanna
Smith who was a kicker for theIndiapolis Coach. You have Charlie Johnson who
is alignment for the Indiapolis Coach.And you look at Chris Skiddings now who
is a play for the Houston Astrosas a first baseman. So we had
a lot of stories that come outto Boys and Girls Club. But I
(09:03):
think what's the biggest deal. Weforget about those stories because it was in
the past. So what we tryto do is bring keep bringing. I'm
trying to bring all that back tothe club and have these young men and
young ladies who's been to the Boysand Girls Club come and talk to our
young kids. Now, I freak, I ask girl, where's the age
group here? What's the age Wego from five years old by Boys and
(09:24):
Girls Club standards to eighteen, butat the Sherman Boys and Girls Club we
don't get a lot of eighteen yearold kids there, So our rangers from
about five to by fifteen fifteen.And how many kids are in the program?
Well, this summer here is probablyone of the biggest summers that we
have. Right now, we haveregistered to right now at two hundred and
sixty seven kids for the summer.We're doing on a daily basis, one
(09:48):
hundred and eighty nine kids a day. And what size is your staff?
That's a lot of kids. Well, right now we're running anywhere from twenty
five to twenty eight staff and theseare volunteers mostly our staff and volunteers.
Well, we got staff and volunteers. We got twenty eight le staff members
without the volunteers. Okay, verygood. What kind of support do you
(10:09):
need from the community. I knowthere's We always talked about fundraising, We
talked about support, what what doyou need from the community, Well,
I just need the community. Onething I want to community, you know,
just to believe in us. Believein us, to bring your kids
out and uh and let us showyou how we can care for them.
And uh. You know, whenyou talk about fundraisers, fundraiser is very
(10:31):
strange because my job is to goout and do the fundraisers. And we
have different groups and uh, differentpeople in my organization that write grants.
But my job is to go outand I go to businesses and ask them
for our help. And I havea great board. I have about twenty
five people on my board and theydo a great job of helping me fundraise.
All that is terrific. What aboutmess There's something that we talked about,
(10:56):
some things we want over some notes, But what what about mess that
you'd like for people to know about. I just like the people that a's
from our community to know that backin the past, the Boys and Girls
Club in Sherman I'm speaking for theBoys and Girls Club in Sherman Hill has
been a miss. People thought wewas closed. But since I've been there,
the community has been coming to backto the Boys and Girls Club.
(11:18):
People believing in the Boys and GirlsClub, and all I want to say
to the community is that we're here. We're here to help you raise your
kids and please have your youngsters comeout to the Boys and Girls Club.
That is that is histeric. Allright, one more time? Tell us
how people get involved? How canthey get in touch with you websites?
Yes, just come go to ourwebsite Sherman Boys and Girls Club dot org
(11:41):
and you can see you can reachme again at nine O three eight nine
two nine zero one nine, extensionone oh one. Or if you don't
need to talk to me, youjust want to ask you any questions about
our programs, call the same numbernine O three eight nine two none zero
one nine extension one oh two andasks for Alexis. That's my front office
managers and they can answer any questionsyou need. Okay, Before we clothes,
(12:05):
I like to just say one moremention for our prezenting sponsor, Niagara,
who makes all of this this possible. We mention their contribution to supporting
nonprofit organizations and their money saving plumbingproducts. But niagres also an innovative in
bathroom hygiene and experiences. So ifyou rate upgrade your bathroom experience and revolutionize
hygiene salo to more refreshing experience withNiagres hydro tech Aday seat. You can
(12:31):
get yours today on Amazon because Niagarawill save you a seat. Mark.
Thank you so much for joining usand being in all that you guys do
in the community in the future withBoys and Girls Club. Well, no,
thank you too. Thank you andthank you to the sponsors that is
helping you put this on. Thisis great for our community to be able
to come and tell our story ofwhat's going on in our community and at
(12:54):
the Boys and Girls Club. AsSherman, I appreciate you for inviting me
and let me know what I cando in the future for you. Okay,
thank you, and thank you toChris Remain and the people here at
Split Window for putting us on andhelping us get the message out. Thank
you again. Thank you.
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