Rowe was raised by a single mom. Bored and unsupervised in the afternoons after school, he would go looking for trouble, he said, but Ralph Wilson Youth Clubs provided Rowe with somewhere to burn off his energy and keep him out of harm’s way. He went from attending youth clubs as a student to working as a staff member. He has a heart for children and he is now attending Temple College so he can one day work with juvenile delinquents.
“Bottom line, I’ve done my share of bad things,” Rowe said. “If I didn’t go here I probably would not have graduated high school. I doubt I would be in college right now. I would probably be on the street somewhere doing illegal things.”
Ralph Wilson Youth Clubs provide after school activities and summer programs for young boys and girls. Every day the big blue buses pull into Temple schools to take students to an afternoon of pool, pingpong, basketball and any number of other activities. Rowe began attending when he was 7, then volunteered there at age 12 and 13, then worked there from age 15 to 22.
While the students are supervised, he said, they decide what they want to do.
“Every kid here is going to be interactive in some way, they’re going to move around,” Rowe said. “Even though we have TVs and have a video arcade room, you’re not going to stay there. Yeah, you’re going to stay on our grounds, but you can go wherever you want, whenever you want. When you’re a kid you don’t have many opportunities like that. It opens up their eyes to new experiences.”
When asked what his favorite activity was while he was a student, without hesitation Rowe smiled and said “dodge ball.”
“We loved it,” he said. “There’s just something about having the opportunity to throw a ball at another kid and not get in trouble for it.”
What really made the difference for Rowe was the staff.
They have staff members that actually care,” he said. “They’re not just here to collect a paycheck because they don’t make enough to be here just to collect a paycheck. They’re here because they care and they show that they care.”
Because Rowe lacked a father figure growing up, he appreciated the fact that they looked after him and even took him on fishing trips.
“You’ve got to find a father figure somewhere, and the ones that succeed in life and stay away from trouble are the ones that find positive father figures, and this is where I found mine.”
He said when he’s out and about wearing a youth club shirt or jacket he’ll run into men who say they went to the youth club when they were younger and plan to send their own kids when the time comes.
Rowe invites anyone who wants to know about the clubs to “come by when there are kids here and watch them interact with each other.”
“Watch how much fun they have, then go home and see how much different it is with kids at home, when all they have to do is play video games.”
Executive Director Charlie Kimmey said that Tristian is one of many people helped by the youth clubs.
“He’s a great kid, made a super employee, and he loves the club and he loved working there,” he said. “There are a lot of Tristian Rowe stories out there.”
He said the youth clubs have three distinct programs - the after-school program, the summer program and the basketball program.
Students can do everything from roller-skating in the gym, to hockey and soccer. There is an available study hall and there are frequent field trips. Single parents and families where mom and dad both work often make it difficult for them to take children to swim lessons and sports camps. Kimmey said that’s where Ralph Wilson Youth Clubs pick up the slack. The after-school program has 350 to 400 students a day and the summer program has about 500 a day. The basketball league has 85 teams and about 652 players.
There is a fee to send children to youth clubs, but Kimmey said it is a steal compared to places like day care. It’s $320 for nine months of after-school care and $230 for the summer. Ralph Wilson Youth Clubs receive funding from United Way. Kimmey said last year they received $74,000 - about 10 percent of their budget.
kchandler@temple-telegram.com
