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Posted: Wednesday, Jun 04, 2008 - 11:13:08 pm PDT
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Boys & Girls Club

Opportunity to bring life-changing power

In the spring of 1959, I was a student at Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic School on Chicago's west side. I was in the eighth grade and less than two months from graduation. One day after school, some friends and I met on the corner of Chicago and LeClaire avenues to hang out in front of Widder's Drug Store to pitch pennies; a game in which each player throws, or "pitches," a penny toward a line drawn on the sidewalk.

Whoever pitches a penny closest to the line wins all the pennies. We were concentrating hard on the game so we didn't notice the police car that had pulled up to the curb next to us. I looked up to see a huge Irish cop climb out of his patrol car and lumber over to where we were squatted on the sidewalk.

He told us in a friendly voice that we were gambling on his beat and he wouldn't stand for it. His message, while kind, scared us enough to put our pennies away. He asked our names and where we lived, recording the information neatly in his black leather-bound notepad before folding himself back into his police car and disappeared around the block.

My friends and I sat on the sidewalk discussing this encounter before deciding it was safe to continue our game. The big policeman must have sensed that we might ignore his warning because he reappeared a few minutes later.

This time his friendly warning was replaced with a stern order, "Get in the squad car." I sat frozen and terrified in the backseat as we headed west on Chicago Avenue, past the street I lived on. I remember thinking that jail would be better than the beating I was sure to get when I got home.

We arrived at the Austin Police Station where the cop herded us past the desk sergeant, up to the second floor and into a huge room with a large boxing ring in the center surrounded by punching bags, free weights and other gym equipment. He suggested we take a look around the place, turned to leave and returned after a few minutes wearing sweat clothes.

"This is the Boys Club of North Austin," he said. "If you ever need a place to go after school, it would be much better for you to come here."

Because he had our names and addresses, he said, he would add us to the Club roster. We never went back to pitching pennies on the street after that. Instead, we spent our afternoons at the Boys Club where we learned how to box and how to be men in a much different setting than the rough classroom of the street.

I was the first member of my immediate family to become a policeman; a fact that I'm sure was influenced by the cop I met in 1959. By 1991, I was promoted to Captain with the Chicago Police Department and was given command of the station where my life changed so many years ago. I remember when the police department began talking about the need for community policing, I told this story to remind people that community policing was alive and well, having started many years before in the form of the Boys Club of North Austin.

We have an opportunity to bring the same kind of life-changing power that I experienced in Chicago to the children of our community. The Boys and Girls Club of Kootenai County will be a learning center where kids can be part of something positive.

But there is much to do before we begin construction of the new Club facility in August 2008. We need the passion and dedication of our community if we hope to see the dream realized.

Every donation counts, no matter how small. Your financial support will help build this positive place for our kids. Please send in your support check today to Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County, P.O. Box 3598, Post Falls, ID, 83877 or call Ryan Davis for more information (208) 661.9316.

Information: www.northidahobgc.org