Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County celebrate 70 years with eye on growth

MANATEE -- Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube can remember as a child, crossing the street at Dartmouth Avenue, cutting through some woods and sitting outside the Bayshore Gardens Boys Club before the doors opened for the afternoon during summers.

"I'd do my chores at home in the morning and I'd be sitting there waiting for the doors to open at 1:30," he said. "Instead of getting in trouble, we spent all of our summers and all of our days and all of our nights at the Boys Club."

And that's what the Boys & Girls Club of Manatee County has done for the past 70 years in the community: offered a viable solution to students who would go home to empty houses, or hang out unsupervised on the streets after school and during the summers. As the club celebrates its 70th year in Manatee -- doors first opened at a clubhouse on Ninth Street West in Bradenton sometime in February 1946 --

staff and supporters are reflecting on what has made the clubs viable and in-demand for so long.

"To sum it up in a nutshell, I think it's relationships," said Willie Cooper, a former club member who now runs the Palmetto Boys Club. "It's the relationships that the kids form with other kids, it's the relationships that kids form with the staff."

Seven decades after the first club opened in the county with the help of Bradenton Kiwanis, the organization now boasts two traditional sites, five school-based sites, 4,100 members, between 120 and 200 employees and a $3.8 million annual operating budget. There are cautiously optimistic plans to expand in the organization's next phase, president Dawn Stanhope said.

"There's a lot of demand for growth, but obviously resources are limited," Stanhope said.

Humble beginnings

In February 1946 -- the exact date isn't clear -- the first Boys Club in the county opened in a frame wooden building that was used by Major League Baseball teams training in Bradenton. During the spring, the Boston Braves continued to use the building as a dressing room, even after the Boys Club obtained the property.

In 1951, the Kiwanis Club of Bradenton put forth $80,000 to construct a fully equipped gym at the time.

That building has since been leveled and now serves as a parking lot at McKechnie Field.

In 1957, the club headed north of the river, opening the Palmetto branch in a small frame building acquired from the First Methodist Church of Bradenton. The new Palmetto Boys Club was completed in 1971.

The Bayshore branch, where Steube attended, opened in 1965 in a loaned store inside the Bayshore Gardens Shopping Center. The Bayshore Gardens Boys Club moved over to the DeSoto Boys Club, on 34th Street West, which was completed and opened in 1978.

"We walked into that two-story building and it was like, holy cow, do you believe how big this is," Steube said. The club opened to girls in 1992.

Today, five schools host sites: Orange Ridge-Bullock Elementary, Lincoln Middle School, Daughtrey Elementary School, Harllee Middle School and The Club at Southeast High School. The DeSoto club and the Palmetto club serve as the non-school sites.

'More than basketball'

Few organizations ran organized sports leagues for children 60 years ago, Stanhope said. Most children didn't play organized sports until they reached high school. And that's originally where most Boys Clubs filled a community void. Now, club focuses are tri-fold, with academics, character and healthy choices at the forefront of the mission.

After school, students work on homework and other academic assignments for an hour, to make sure they're on track in school.

Without that piece, student won't be able to get far in life, Stanhope said.

"It's going to limit their opportunities going forward if they don't have that," she said.

Healthy lifestyles are also a big component, and that's where sports like basketball and other activities come in, Stanhope said. The lessons they teach at the clubs go well beyond playing on a basketball court. They try to teach nutrition, safety and healthy choices.

That last piece is character and citizenship programs, including mentorship. Stanhope said the clubs work to provide leadership opportunities for members.

That leadership opportunity was what drew Kayla Cannady-Truewell to stay involved with the DeSoto branch.

The 21-year-old senior at Florida State University first joined the club when she was in middle school and her mother was working. Instead of Cannady-Truewell going home after school, her mother enrolled her. When she got to high school, her mother said she no longer had to go, she was old enough to stay home.

"I took it upon myself," she said. "I wanted to volunteer and help the younger kids."

Relationships

Almost every Boys & Girls Club alumnus can name a counselor or employee who lended a helping hand to them, and who they consider a mentor. Cannady-Truewell remembers calling the director at the time "Huggy Bear," because of the way he made members feel welcome.

For Steube, he remembers some of his coaches while he was attending, how Ed Dick helped shape him into the man he's become today. Steube hopes he had that effect on some of the children he coached while he was there, too.

"You just had that comfort of being able to talk to someone," Steube said. "Hopefully, I did the same thing to the kids that were on my baseball team when I coached."

Willie Cooper remembers the woodshop teacher, a Mr. Hamilton, from his days attending the club. One of his particular favorites was former Major League Baseball player Hal McRae, a Bradenton resident who played for the Cincinatti Reds and the Kansas City Royals. Cooper said he was impressed a baseball player would come back to Bradenton to work with students.

"The staff members are great, there are certain staff members that you kind of grab hold to," Cooper said.

Stanhope said the future of the Boys & Girls Clubs will rely on being flexible, quick to adapt to changing needs of the community. After 70 years, the relationships and trust that have formed between the community and the clubs are a good sign for the future.

Stanhope would like to see the club expand, but there's obviously limitations to that, including resources and the need to make smart decisions.

"We need to make sure it's going to have the results we're looking for," she said.

Right now, they're planning a gala for the fall to reconnect alumni. They're forming committees and gathering alumni who want to get involved with planning the event.

Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 11:21 PM with the headline "Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County celebrate 70 years with eye on growth ."