11-11-23 Seg 1 Boys and Girls Club (non profit)

The hosts of Durango Digs radio show discuss the upcoming Chamber of Business After Hours event. They talk about the Boys and Girls Club and the various roles that the guest, Vaughn Morris, has within the community. They discuss the importance of supportive relationships for children and the need for accessible spaces where kids can explore their interests. They also mention plans for expanding the Boys and Girls Club in the future to include more technology-related activities. The conversation touches on the benefits of hands-on experiences and career exploration for young people. Overall, they emphasize the importance of providing a safe and fun environment for kids to be themselves and discover their passions. Welcome to Durango Digs here on AM 1240, Katie Geo and 98.3 FM, Jack Llewellyn from the Chamber of Commerce and a reminder upcoming we have the Chamber of Business After Hours this month on the 16th down at Durango Harley, so Chamber members, invited guests, come on out and get your motor running. Come on out and say hi to Trevor and Katie Bird, do a great job. They've actually been one of our Businesses of the Year as well as Katie got White Pot of the Year a few years back, so Vaughn Morris with the Boys and Girls Club, how are you doing? Doing awesome, Jack, thanks. Yeah, well, thank you for, you know, wearing a variety of hats and, you know, from Boys and Girls Club, Chamber Board of Directors, you're on a few things. Yeah, you know, that Volunteer of the Year Award that was given to me a few years ago, you know, still got a lot of those pokers in the fire, but scaling back a little bit, you know. Well, you've been on the Bayfield Library. Yep, been a trustee there for several years, United Way of Southwest Colorado, clearly the Chamber. Aren't you Skyhawks, bring back Skyhawks Booster Club, you mentioned some about that. Yeah, Skyhawks Club Advisory, working with Travis Whipple and them, been part of Salvation Army. Yeah, well, sounds like you need to take Jack's 12-step just say no program. No, you do a lot for the community and just appreciate everything you do, and we're here to talk Boys and Girls Club, and I attended your Building Bright Futures. Building Great Futures, yep. Great Futures, sorry, bright, great, you know, slept since then, and such, always such a great event, and just seeing the individuals and the businesses and all the people that show up to help out, it's just a great, great breakfast and dinner or lunch, right? Yep, that'll be coming around back again in the spring, you know, and being in existence for 16 years now, right, we opened the doors in 2007, I think one of the really cool things was being able to show that alumni video to folks, right, and seeing those kids that were starting out at 6, 7, 8, 9 years old back then, and now, you know, they're pilots, they're starting their own business, they're in law enforcement, you know, and I think that's the power of the program, right, I mean, we do a lot of things to help kids succeed and give them a lot of tools, but it's really those supportive relationships in a fun, safe place that we remember, right, you know, I mean, whether you went to a Boys and Girls Club or not, I think every one of us, I would hope every one of us can think back to a time where somebody was there for you, told you something that resonated, probably not your parents, you know, I didn't even appreciate what my parents were telling me until a lot later in life, but it was a similar message or the same message to what that other person was telling me, and I think that's the power of the program. Well, and I just also, I really like what you guys have done in a small space, you go into the Boys and Girls Club and you're located by the Rec Center, and you enter into there and, you know, you've got the computer lab, you've got the games, you've got the basketball court, you've got, you expanded and, you know, took down a wall to expand that room, the teen room. Yes, yes, so, you know, it's right next, it is right next to the Rec Center, between the Splash Pad and Main Street, you know, and I like to describe it kind of like what I told my wife, it's not what you look like on the outside, it's what you are about on the inside. That's right. So, you know, we've done a lot of different things over the last 16 years, everything from starting that teen space you just described to expanding it, and now we have a pretty major project we're looking at in 2024, again, to take additional space, office space and those kinds of things and spin it, you know, kids are really into technology and all those kinds of things, right? We don't have a great space currently, so looking at some community supporters to, you know, knock out some walls, some maker space, you know, a place where kids can make music, you know, we've been doing the 3D printing for a while, you know, but just really giving, it's hard to find those spaces in the community, right? Libraries are doing a great job, school district has their pieces, but where do you go after school and during that out of school time to find some of those things you're really interested in? Yeah. So, you know, more opportunity to kids, same thing with career exploration, right? You know, back in the olden days, back, you know, I won't date either one of us, but you know, I'm older, career exploration was an encyclopedia and maybe some microfiche, you know, now career exploration is how do you really find out about something and there's, you know, the virtual reality and all of those pieces. So it's super exciting, you know, again, we want that space to be open and accessible to all kids and be something, because they want to come, it's fun and safe and it's designed for them. You know, you mentioned the 3D printing and I actually happened to go over to the innovation center at the main mall where, you know, the small business development center is and they have a 3D printer there and I was like, what are they doing? And she said, they're making a drone and they're 3D printing the drone and then all these little intricate parts that they have to put together. It's mind boggling to me, right? You know, just thinking about what is possible, you know, and again, you know, I'm not a big conspiracy theory person, but I do like the idea that we did find a spaceship and crack the code and that's like technology is going so much quicker than it used to be. But I've also seen enough Terminator movies and those other things to have a little bit of caution and worry. But it is pretty amazing, you know, we had the same thing. So for us, you know, we have some dampers around the air conditioning and those kinds of things. Some people know what I'm talking about. But for some strange reason, we used to have the little key, probably 20 of them. Then it went to five, then it went to one, then I thought it was none. So we have one and I'll never forget, I was at Gar's digging through boxes to find it and then we just 3D printed another one. Ah, there you go. Yeah. I was like, wow. And I didn't even think about it and they're like, we could 3D print one of those and I'm like, really? Yeah. Let's get after it. Yep. And now you have more keys. Yep. How funny. Well, I know I'm kind of getting off the rails, but I'm going to jump over to the train because I know that at the train station, they may have their own 3D printer now, I don't know. But in the roundhouse, they reached out to Fort Lewis to 3D print some parts because you can't just run down to Napa. Right. And so somebody maybe, you know, works at the roundhouse, you know, learn how to 3D print. Sure. At the Boys and Girls Club. I don't know, but that's the kind of thing that gives you hands-on experience that these kids can explore. That's the key, right? You know, like getting access and opportunities and exposure to so many different things because you never know what you really want to do. No. You know, but you can try a lot of things and maybe mark a few off the list and again, what you want to do when you're 10 or what you want to do when you're 16 may not be what you're doing in later years. Well, wait a minute. I never thought I'd be a chamber director. I'll tell you that. Well, I never thought I would be a, you know, CEO of a non-profit myself, but... But you did go as a kid, right? Correct. You did go to a Boys and Girls Club. Yes, that is correct. Yes. So you experienced it firsthand as a youth. That's correct. And, you know, I mean, it was a lot different. You know, I've told this story to many folks. You know, what a youth development experience looks like now in a Boys and Girls Club was far different. Sure. A boxing ring. Yeah. Trampoline and submarine video games. Earn your keep. 100%. A lot of king of the hill. You know, you got to knuckle up to get on the old video game. But again, it was just so much fun. Yeah. You know, you had some independence. You got out of, you know, and I grew up in a neighborhood back in the olden days, you know, where there were sterile moms and those kinds of things. But still, that opportunity to go to a place, hang out with your friends, be safe, is powerful. You know, I mean, pro-social activities out of school and, you know, it was a different time. It's a different place now. So many different things are facing, you know, so many just ... Difficulties and challenges. Yeah, just a lot, right? Like there's just so much noise, you know, because everything is so much more accessible and you're just inundated with things. So stepping back and being a kid, you know, I think is something that we have to continue to provide. And again, meeting them where they're at, right? Technology is where it is. But, you know, we're still, you know, we're still going to play foursquare. We're still going to play dodgeball. You know, we're still going to billiards. You know, I think we've talked about this a couple times in the past, you know, kids don't play ping pong anymore. And I'm so refreshed because we just had a donation of an air hockey table from Jessica Matlock at the LPA. Yeah. Yeah. At the Meet the CEO event. Yep. You know, we were talking about that because her kids wanted a ping pong table and I couldn't be more excited. Yeah. Because it was win-win. We got the, you know, we got the air hockey table and there's more kids wanting to play ping pong. Oh, that's fun. Well, and that's the kind of thing what we have to take advantage of in a small community, you know, and having those connections and being able to, you know, work with other organizations and, you know, find what you might need and whether it's, you know, I should cash his king but then finding the different things that the kids can use. And I want to say, looking back too, I can only imagine, you know, what photos would be out there if cell phones were around when we were kids. Oh, yeah. I mean, I look back on it, I got some pictures of, you know, some parties that, you know, I don't know where the negatives are anymore. Sure. But, you know, it was, there would have been a lot of really good stuff incriminating. Well, and that's the thing we talk to kids about now, about, you know, being, you know, savvy about once it's on the Internet, it's forever, you know, and so be super careful, you know, what you share and how you share it. Yeah, I mean, it, well, I was just laughing about this the other day talking about, you know, when I was 13 years old, I grew up in New Mexico, you know, Aztec, just south of here and, you know, at 13, I got a license for a 100cc motorcycle, I could go anywhere I wanted to go. Yeah. Drive, ride to Farmington, go to road to Durango, right? Sure. No cell phone, no beeper, no nothing. Yeah. The world is yours and I was like, wow, you know, there's no chance I would let my kids do that. No, no, and those are the things that you instill at the Boys and Girls Club, how to make right decisions, you know, and again, character is when no one's looking. Right. And the things that you instill in them and saying, yes, you can do that, but ask yourself, if I do this, then what are the consequences? And that's truly it, right? You know, so, you know, there's always going to be somebody there that's not going to judge, right? And they're going to make mistakes. And I think that's really powerful, you know, we're all going to have to say, hey, what would you do? And, you know, I used to talk about advice and advice, you know, isn't worth anything, opinion, right? Yeah. You know, you decide, you know, and sometimes your decision will be, it's worth it. And sometimes your decision will be, it won't, and you will learn from that. But back to the, you know, the motorcycle story, we got to learn a whole lot of on our own. Sure. Real life experiences. And now there's a lot of controls around, you know, we want to keep kids safe first and foremost. Right. But we also got to give them some breadth, you know, so they can develop some resiliency, right? So they can develop some decision making skills, not just always answer or protect. I think you know what I'm saying. Yeah. I do. Because I also look on and I go to also be smart and walk away, you know, and be able to say, yeah, you probably could beat me up. Yeah, you're right. You know, and the walk away and being able to just say, you know, I'm not going to do this. And knowing that that's the right decision and take time to cool off and, you know, and those types of things. Because, you know, I'm actually, like how we were talking and telling the story, I'm thinking of the tragic, you know, shooting here recently in Durango. Sure. And these young adults that made a decision that now has affected the rest of their lives. And you know, I just, and it always, I look back and to have mentors, to have that light bulb in my, I said it went off in my head before I did something stupid. You really think that's the right thing to do and stopping and thinking through it. And it was because I had some really good mentors in my life. Sure. Well, you know, the collateral damage of those decisions not only affects them, I mean, it's everybody in all of those families and then the community at large, right? I mean, so there's always one bad decision and there's difference between bad and catastrophic, right? And that, in my opinion, those were catastrophic decisions. And you just made me think of a story back whenever I was growing up, you know, I was with friends, they decided to rob a grocery store, right? And my opportunity was to walk away, to your point, do it, you know, and we're always, we always want to have the clout, right? We don't want to lose face, you know, all those different things. But the thing that kept me from doing it was my role model and mentor, Rich Holden, he's up in Trinidad, he's a basketball coach, to just continue to tell me all of those times, like, you can be your own person, you can be better than that. And I didn't do it. You know, and thank goodness, because we all went on different trajectories after that, right? And, you know, I ended up running a Boys and Girls Club and a couple of them did okay at the end, you know, as we get older, but a couple of them didn't work out well. No, no. And I think, too, that, you know, I look back and I remember one of the most humbling experiences when I was probably six, I grabbed a couple of pieces of candy, and my mom, you know, found them in my pocket or whatever, and she went right back to the store, had to go to the store manager and hand them to him, you know, and he's like, well, I'm not going to call the police. Thank you for bringing them back and don't ever do it again. Sure. It was a good lesson for me. Can you stick around? For sure. All right. We're going to talk more details about the Boys and Girls Club with Vaughn Morris. And what's your website? BGCLaplata.org. All right. We'll be back with BGCLaplata.org in a few minutes. Stay tuned. And again, you're listening to Durango Digs here on AM 1240, KDGO 98.3 FM. Stay tuned.