Baker Youth Club in Warsaw celebrates 100 Years with a birthday bash

WARSAW — Memories were evoked and shared at Baker Boy’s Club/Baker Youth Club’s 100th birthday celebration on Saturday.

Activities during the six-hour event included a first responders cook-off, a professional barbecue competition, a bounce house; free ice cream, snow cones, cookies and T-shirts; a giant digital board, live music and a display of photos, trophies and other memorabilia.

BYC Executive Director Tracy Furnivall began going to the club as a youth. He recalled, “I don’t know exactly why or how I remember it, other than the fun that we had. I remember eating dinner, and if I didn’t finish my plate, I couldn’t walk over the hill at the old Madison School down to where Retired Tigers is, the old high school, and that’s where we would go. My brother, Eric Sebo and Michelle would even come sometimes, we would walk over the hill, but I couldn’t go if I didn’t finish my meal. And I didn’t like vegetables. So my parents would be out of the kitchen, and my brother, Troy, would eat my peas, because if I couldn’t go, he couldn’t go.”

He said he remembers walking over the hill, walking into the club and going upstairs to the gymnasium where some of the older guys were playing some of the best basketball of that time. Downstairs is where the little, scrawny kids went. Sock tag was played up and down the stairs, there was a labyrinth board where the marble would go through the trap and bumper pool. There was even marble football.

“Scott Wiley still gives me the business about that because I threw that (marble football) away when we moved. He found it in the dumpster and dug it out. He’s still got it today,” Furnivall said.

“But I think the memories were made starting then, but then going through our high school days of some of the best basketball, I think probably in the state of Indiana at that time, being played right here at the Boy’s Club when we were growing up, with Aaron Rovenstine, Barry Kline, Moses McNees, Mike Claybaugh, Jeff Johnson, Rocky Goshert, Sebo, Brandenburg, Heisler, who’s an Olympian. It’s just so many memories of those kids. Scott Franklin. The Hartle boys. So just many of them. It’s almost overwhelming, the memories and the people that came through the Club back then.”

Warsaw Mayor Jeff Grose, who also went to the club in his youth, said, “Friends are there. Very good basketball. We love basketball and our friends are there. And then (Robert “Coach” Lichtenwalter) has the ability to provide guardrails, but not too tight. It was loose, it was fun, but it was the club. You had to behave, you had to be straight, you had to be a good boy, otherwise you’re going to be in his office.”

Furnivall said no one wanted to go to the office.

“It was just a good culture, and then he offered many different things,” Grose said. “And now Furni is offering (many different things). We couldn’t see it, what he’s doing now, which is neat. The evolution of it.”

Furnivall stated, “It’s neat and it was tough because we grew up in that area, and I remember Rick Jackson, who is one of our judges today, Rick and Randy, and they would give me business when I took over about the changes we were making. I’m like, ‘Boys, nothing’s what it was 50 years ago. We have to change.’”

He said what he believes he and his board of directors did very well was listen to the community and what were the needs, and then worked toward filling those needs to the best of their capability.

“That’s what we’ve done over the years, and now we’re in a 45,000-square-foot facility offering reading, STEM, art. Basketball gets played, but it’s average, it’s different, it’s not the same basketball back in the day,” Furnivall said.

Grose stated all kids are a diverse population. Furnivall said there’s boys, girls; low, middle and high income. “We’re getting them all. We’re here for anybody and everybody. The change has been neat to see, it’s been hard, but, again, it’s the need of our community and we try to fill that,” Furnivall stated.

Even with the changes, the kids at BYC are still making memories that will last them a lifetime.

“These kids are going to remember it like we are. They don’t have the sock tag memories. They have the Nine Square memories. Or they have the STEM memories. Or they have the memories in the art room. We didn’t have that, we probably wouldn’t have gone to the art room if we had it, but we’re offering that,” Furnivall said.

BYC has three pillars: education, health and social skill development.

“I think that social skill development is the number one thing we accomplish here every day all day long. Kids are interacting with other kids, interacting with high school staff, college staff and adult staff. So these kids are getting all levels of engagement, and now they’re building that friendship and those relationships that they’re going to remember for a lifetime,” Furnivall stated.

Mark Himes remembered first going to the Club when it used to be where the Retired Tigers is now. He was about 10 years old then. He kept attending until he was about a senior in high school, then he was a junior staff member when it moved over to the Pete Thorn Center.

“A friend of mine and I used to run intramurals on Saturdays at the Pete Thorn Center,” Himes said.

When he first started going to the Club, “The big thing at the old Retired Tigers was sock tag, and we played sock tag and you’ll hear that a lot because a lot of kids played sock tag there.”

He recalled going upstairs to play basketball and watching the older guys play.

“Every once in a while, when they’d get done, they’d ask us to jump in and play with them and that was a big thing. It made you feel pretty good then to go in there and play with the older guys,” Himes said.

There have only been four BYC directors, and Wiley was one of them for 11 years.

“My first memory of Baker Youth Club goes all the way back to 1966 and my brother, Bill, brought me there when it was at Retired Tigers,” Wiley said. “And I remember the gym was on the third floor, and back then you had to work your way up to play with the big guys down at the end of the court. But I was young, so I remember playing sock tag. They had this labyrinth game with a steel ball. They had this marble football game. I mean, things that technology today would blow away, but was so much fun.”

He said he loved it from the first minute he was there.

Bill Smith served on the K21 Health Foundation Board and they donated money to help BYC redo the building.

“As a newcomer, and when I say newcomer I’ve only been here 16 years, so I’m aware of Pete Thorn and Coach and all of them because the people that have been here, they just kind of bring you into that community and say, ‘These are the people that we treasure in this community,’ and so that’s kind of how I got involved in it, through the K21 donations, through other people, just knowing that this is what the Baker Youth Club does and really giving young students a place to go, a place to be, a place to expand their horizons,” Smith said.

Mitch Reinholt said growing up, probably through late elementary and middle school, he was able to attend and play a lot of basketball at BYC.

“I remember some great pick-up games. Playing with a lot of buddies. I have always just appreciated the resources that the community has. Loved getting to go after school, in the summers, hanging out with friends, making memories,” he said.

Saturday’s event was a cool way to celebrate 100 years for BYC, Reinholt stated. “I think this barbecue event is the first of many, hopefully. Raise some funds for the organization and have some fun while we’re doing it,” he said.

Reinholt was one of the people asked to be a judge for the barbecue.

“So I got to taste the wings today, and I got to taste eight or nine different samplings, and they were all amazing. There’s a lot of really good barbecue out there. I’ve never judged a competition before, but I’ve eaten a lot of barbecue over the years, so hopefully that qualifies my palette. But I’ve really enjoyed it, really good food,” he said.

BYC Development Director Tamara Drake said she loves the positive environment and working with her co-workers, as well as with the kids.

“I love to see them grow. It’s so amazing when we get to see the success stories. They’ll be kids that come back in. We even have some employees that used to come to the club as kids, and you get to see” them grown up, she said.