Toledo winters can be tough, especially when you don’t have heat. Thanks to the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union #33, Toledo’s Soul City Boxing Club will have a new heating system before the snow flies, making “turn up the heat” more than just a slogan this winter.
Construction for a cause
A boxer with real skills is said to have good hands. In a Toledo neighborhood a lot of good hands are creating positive change.
A dozen strong men file through the doors of the Soul City Boxing Club, right behind Executive Director Shari-Sha Crockett. Their training won’t be in the ring, but above and around it. Their gear, blue jeans and heavy work boots. Broad shoulders and good hands make precision cuts and form sheet metal, from which the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union #33 derives its name. Third-year apprentices practice their craft by donating their expertise to construct ductwork and to install two new furnaces and ductwork after doing some demolition and making creative modifications.
The old brick building that now houses the Soul City Boxing Club was most recently a barbershop with a second-floor apartment. The heating system project is divided into two phases, totaling an estimated 250 hours of work. All the effort is for a serious cause.
Getting it started
In 2009 The Soul City Boxing & Wrestling Club was established as a nonprofit organization, in response to cuts in funding for extracurricular activities at local schools. “Some of the sports programs required new or increased fees for participation. Some sports were simply cut,” Director Crockett noted. In addition to boxing and wrestling, the club offers general fitness classes, yoga and meditation, for both youth and adults.
As students began to show up to participate with the club, deeper community needs became apparent. The club responded by providing meals and tutoring for students, as well as
financial education for adults, through
Woodforest National Bank.
Knowing the neighborhood
Soul City Boxing is first and foremost a place for education, a foundation for community improvement. Before club members become boxers, wrapping their hands and lacing up gloves, the kids have to complete their homework and keep their grades up, while showing respect for everyone in the building.
The kids with difficulty maintaining their grades work with tutors, which allows them to continue training at Soul City. In addition to local community members, University of Toledo students also assist. An old barber chair still sits in the now-converted classroom. An adjoining classroom, with computer stations, still has sinks and mirrors, more holdovers from the barbershop.
Other fitness facilities sell nutritional sports supplements, honing in on scientifically determined optimal vitamin, mineral and protein needs for the athletes. On Junction Avenue the needs are more basic. Children’s Hunger Alliance provides hot meals Monday through Friday. An additional snack is available during the summer.
“Some of the kids might not otherwise get a meal,” said Coach Rashawn Jones. “Some of the kids go home to an empty fridge with only water to drink at night… and even that (the water) might be shut off.”
Success in the ring
An average of 50 athletes a day filter through the gym, attesting to some success since the doors opened seven years ago. By securing a place on the 2016 Olympic team that went to Rio, Charles Conwell’s good hands have brought the greatest renown. notoriety. Otha Jones III is following Conwell’s lead by qualifying for the Nationals with USA Boxing, with a goal to make it to the 2020 Olympics.
With the grace of dancers, Denton Yates, 15, and Allen Brook, 14, meet in the ring to spar. Neither fighter takes Yates’ 20-pound weight advantage for granted
Success in the ring is not limited to the men. Oshae Jones is the 2016 Youth Woman 152-pound champion. Zhane Crockett was the 2015 AIBA Female Boxer of the Year. At 16 years old, with a 4.5 GPA, Crockett is preparing for college. Ultimately she would like to become a physical therapist. “I’ve seen some injuries. This place has influenced me in many ways. I’d like to give back to the sport,” she explained.
Fighting acute poverty
Youth is a measure of time, and experience makes a fighter. You can often see a lifetime of hard-won experience on the faces of even Soul City’s youngest participants– the fight in their eyes, their poise and grace shown in their movements and, perhaps, a quick smile.
“It’s a good safe place to be. He can learn some new skills,” stated Philip Johnson Jr., referring to his son, 6-year-old Philip Johnson, III.
By almost any measure, the area around the Soul City Boxing Club, 801 Junction Avenue, could be defined as tough. Many local residents would like a free heating system. The same economists and demographers who define that level of poverty as “Acute Poverty” would not call the Sheet Metal Workers Union donation as “free.”
Acute Poverty is a term that is statistically significant. Neighborhood Scout, a population demographics website, reports that the Detroit Avenue-Dorr Avenue neighborhood has, “… a greater percentage of children living in poverty (71.3 percent) than found in 98.2 percent of all U.S. neighborhoods… the problem can be acute.”
The real world results of that level of poverty can be sanitized into crime statistics and housing values. However, the crushing weight of life in those statistical conditions is bluntly summed up by Executive Director Crockett, “It’s not for everybody. You have to be coachable, respectful. We will work on behavior issues, so the kids aren’t robbing and killing people.” If Coaches Otha and Roshawn Jones never create a champion, it will be alright, as long as the club’s true mission is accomplished.
“Our mission is to create a positive atmosphere with sportsmanship, team unity and community involvement as our foundation.”
Slogans such as the Mission Statement are prominently painted throughout the Soul City Boxing facility, both inside and out. Local 33 Business Representative and City Councilman Matt Cherry said, ”Stop waiting for things to happen. Go out and make them happen.” He went on to say, “I love that sign. It represents exactly the type of volunteer project the Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 33 wants to support.”
A huge thanks
The coaches and kids at Soul City Boxing wanted to give a clear thanks to the Sheet Metal Worker’s Union and the local businesses that help make the project happen. Materials are funded and supplied by local Toledo businesses VM Systems and M&M Heating & Cooling, with labor and design supplied by the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union #33. The estimated dollar value is in excess of $25,000.
“This is huge. I had no idea it would be this big. We appreciate anything we can get, but this is like the lottery,” exclaimed Coach Rashawn Jones.
Boxing gloves, bruised faces and all the other common metaphors associated with our modern gladiators make for entertaining reading. Sports writers live for this stuff. Out in the real world, where poor children go hungry and where they fight for a chance to get punched in the face, many good hands are working together to make a little section of Toledo, Ohio a better place.
