New Center Helps Kids Get Answers
By Martha Deller, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Mar. 20–FORT WORTH — M.L Carr was 15 when a North Carolina businessman sent him to basketball camp, setting him on the path that would take him to Guilford College and later playing professionally with the Boston Celtics.
Carr said his mentor, Davis Lee, challenged him to “go out and help another kid.”
And Carr has been meeting that challenge for years, mentoring students and starting an online information resource that uses celebrity role models
On Wednesday, Carr unveiled the WARM2Kids Learning Center in the Southeast Multi-Agency YMCA. Sponsored by former Terrell High School basketball player James Cash, the center is dedicated to Robert Hughes, “the all-time winningest high school basketball coach” during his 47-year career at Terrell and Dunbar high schools.
Cash, a minority owner of the Celtics, said Hughes was a mentor for him and his Terrell teammates just as Lee was for Carr.
“He showed us what perseverance and commitment to high ideals can do. The way he lived showed us how to live. We wouldn’t be where we are today without what you contributed to us,” Cash told Hughes during a ceremony to open the new center.
The three-room center features 10 computers on which teens can access the WARM2Kids website. The site — which stands for We’re All Role Models 2 Kids — answers questions on more than 300 topics such as acne and anxiety, bullying and depression.
The site features celebrities such as retired Celtic Larry Bird, who shares his experience with his father’s suicide, and country singer Tim McGraw, long estranged from his father, talking about the importance of parent-child relationships.
“It helps kids know they are not alone in dealing with these issues,” Carr said. “We want kids to understand they can yell help.”
The YMCA staff had not yet begun showing its after-school charges how to use the new Web site Wednesday. But the children playing games on the computers were excited about the new center.
“I’m grateful that the YMCA has something like this,” said 11-year-old Kayla Walker, a student at Como Montessori School. “It’s overwhelming that someone wants to do this for the YMCA. I hope I can be like him someday.”
Kayla said she’ll probably use the new Web site to seek answers to questions without “stressing out my parents.”
“But you should talk to your parents sometimes,” said Kayla, who said she would share information with her parents.
That’s what Cash and his 1965 Terrell classmates had in mind when they decided to form a partnership with Carr to open the center.
“There’s absolutely no way that we can replicate Coach Hughes, but we can try,” Cash said.
“We hope some kid who comes to the center will say ‘Who is Coach Hughes?’ And when they find out, they’ll be inspired to do something very special.”
We hope some kid … will say ‘Who is Coach Hughes?’ And when they find out, they’ll be inspired to do something very special.
By the numbers
14 million — Number of U.S. children unsupervised every day
830 — Number of children served daily by the Southeast YMCA
300 — Number of topics covered on the WARM2Kids Web site
70 — Number of WARM2Kids centers planned by the end of 2008
20 — Number of WARM2Kids centers in operation, including the Fort Worth center.
Source: www.warm2kids.com
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