From the streets to the Boys & Girls Club on The Murfreesboro Post

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From the streets to the Boys & Girls Club

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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer

Posted: Sunday, August 31, 2008 8:31 am

From the streets to the Boys & Girls Club | COVER

TMP Photo by Kelly Hite. Maya Hill shows Myles Blake, Ciecie Gibson and Maddie Moeller how to shoot pool in the gam room at the Boys & Girls Club.

In October of 2007, Maya Hill was in the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center. Today, she’s a role model for other at-risk kids at the Boys & Girls Club of Rutherford County.

It’s hard to imagine this clean-cut girl with bright eyes was always out on the streets, in and out of Daniel McKee Alternative School and downright disrespectful to adults. But that’s how her mother Arlesia described her behavior of a year ago.

“It was the influence – the people on the street, …” Arlesia said. “She was worried about her reputation, while my son was at the Boys & Girls Club.”

Maya said her mother cried and prayed she’d straighten out. Her father James didn’t really show his emotions, but she could tell he was worried, she said.

“I told her she needs to do something more positive than hanging out on the street with her friends,” Arlesia said, adding she was worried Maya would drop out of school altogether.

Then Maya, 15, ended up in jail for three weeks following an arrest for assault and battery. She got into an argument with a boy in school and ended up in a fight.

Maya spent her time hanging out with her friends on the streets, getting into fights and using drugs, she said.

“I didn’t look for trouble. But if it was there, I didn’t mind it,” the Siegel High School junior explained.

It took a taste of jail to put Maya back on the right track — that and help from the Boys & Girls Club in Murfreesboro.

Each year, the Boys & Girls Club provides programs for more than 1,600 children, like Maya, in the areas of character and leadership development, education and career, health and life skills, the arts, and sports, fitness and recreation.

“Thousands have benefited from belonging to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Rutherford County since they opened their doors in 1987 with the mission to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens,” explained Michelle Pauley, spokeswoman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Rutherford County.

In order to help more at-risk children in Rutherford County, the Boys & Girls Club is embarking on a $4.6 million Capital and Endowment Campaign. The funds will be used to build a new facility in north Rutherford County and add a teen center to the Murfreesboro facility. Remaining funds will further develop its endowment.

For more information, visit its Web site at www.bgcrc.net or call 615-890-CLUB.

While Maya was in jail, her 13-year-old brother Roman wrote to her and told her about how much fun the Boys & Girls Club is. Maya didn’t believe him and told him so.

But after she was released from jail, she went to the club. At first she lied to her friends and parents, telling them she didn’t like it, but she really did.

“After the first week, I decided if I had to lie to my friends about where I am, then I have the wrong friends,” Maya said.

So Maya changed her friends and her state of mind. Now she’s at the Boys & Girls Club every day.

“She went to juvenile, which was very devastating. She went to Daniel McKee,” Arlesia said. “She hasn’t been back since going to the Boys & Girls Club.”

Maya explained she uses the club as a way to stay out of trouble.

“Instead of picking up a knife or bag of marijuana, I pick up a kid,” she explained. “It’s the same thing but different materials.”

By staying away from the trouble, Maya has done an about-face since going to the Boys & Girls Club. And even Maya is surprised about the person she’s become, Arlesia said.

“I never thought I’d be as successful as I am now, gradewise and personalitywise,” Maya said.

Maya is now on her way to graduating high school and looks forward to going to college to become a pediatric nurse.

She explained she had a bout of bacterial meningitis that put her in the hospital. She had two nurses, one mean and one who was nice. She would look forward to seeing the nice one every day.

“I want to be a pediatric nurse so I can be the one that a kid looks forward to,” Maya said.

Now that school has started a new year, Maya works with the younger kids – playing games and helping with homework. Maya likes it there so much that she spends most of her free time there.

Arlesia said both Maya and Roman would be up at “the crack of dawn” over the summer, and she worried they were spending too much time there, but then she thought it kept Maya off the street and away from negative influences.

“It helps me,” Maya said. “I see a lot of kids here being disrespectful like I was, and I try to help them like I was helped.”

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under COVER

Member Opinions:

By: bibmom on 9/1/08
This was a VERY well-written article.
I have met Maya and cannot imagine the courage she has to have made this dramatic change.
She is an inspiration to me--even at my "advanced" age. You go, Maya!