[00:00:08] Speaker A: Hey. Hey.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: I want to welcome you back to just say something's weekly podcast. So the last few weeks we've had Lynn Hooper with us, and we've covered our parenting programs. So just say something. Is also providing services for our youth out there. And so we've been very fortunate and blessed to have a young man with us, Mr. Stacey Ashmore. And Stacey is over our youth programming and works with a couple of our programs with youth in the community. But also, he is Mr. Tobacco and Mr. Vaping educator. But Stacey, that particular topic is for another day.
So again, Stacey, I want to welcome you to the podcast this week. And so for our audience. Yes, tell them who Mr. Stacy is.
[00:01:18] Speaker C: Mr. Stacy, Asheville have been with just say something about 20 years now. I started out as a contract worker and was hired a few years later to come in and do programs and activities for our youth. And we go out and do drug, like Mr. Clark was saying, do drug education.
We have started up a youth sports program and also life skills and community centers and churches, wherever anyone need a program dealing with our youth or need to be educated on drugs, alcohol or tobacco.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: So today, Stacey, our newest program is our youth impact sports program.
So tell me, what is youth impact sports program?
[00:02:13] Speaker C: Youth impact sports program started about three years ago under the leadership of three different agencies. Reedy property. Just say something. And cee, we saw that it was a service that was well overdue in some of our undeserved communities.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: All right. So what age kids is impact for.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: Age kids started out, when we first started out, we made a decision between the ages of six to twelve. Those are the ages that where we can probably work and kind of shape and mold kids through sports, but also give them the tools for behavior problems and educate them on the drugs, alcohol and tobacco and other dangerous things they see out in the community.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: And so what sports do we use or do you use to engage these kids?
[00:03:09] Speaker C: We started out with just flag football, and they have grown to basketball. We have done swimming at the Cleveland street Y. And also we are working on a program now where the children can go over and take about three months of free karate classes.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: All right. And so if a parent is out there listening, how do they get their child enrolled?
[00:03:34] Speaker C: They can get in contact with us here at. Just say something. They can email me at
[email protected] or they can just call here at, just say something at 864-467-4099 and just let them know that. Can I speak with the young man, or if they forget my name, that's working with the kids, dealing with the sports.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: All right. So a parent brings, so we have flag football. A parent signs their child up for our series that we do of what, four weeks of flag, four weeks of.
[00:04:13] Speaker C: Training of flag football.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: So tell our audience, the parents, what they can expect for their child during those four weeks, what lessons, how does it come together, those kind of things, of giving them a general background of what to expect.
[00:04:33] Speaker C: First of all, we find a field that's quite kind of in a central area where the parents wouldn't have to drive too far. Like we say, the program is free.
Then we'll go out and find coaches. Before we get started, we try to find at least six coaches to come in to work with us. We have guest speakers that come in and speak with our youth on different topics. Last year, our biggest guest was Kelly Bryant. That came in. We have Justin Jenkings that own a trucking company. He came in, we had Lance Power, a state champion basketball coach that was in one of my programs, be honest with you, all over 20 years ago, he have came from public housing, and he's one of my top basketball coaches. And also, like I was just saying, justin came from my program also, and he's now owner and operator of a truck line.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: All right. So, Stacy, how long have we offered impact for the community?
[00:05:43] Speaker C: We started impact of September of 2020. So this right now is going on its fourth year this September.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: All right. And so as we look at those four years, I'm sure you have one or two success stories that you can share to those out there listening.
[00:06:03] Speaker C: Yes, we have a few success stories. One of the first one will come offhand is where we first started with youth impact sports was at North Franklin, where we found probably about 15 to 18 Gualamali youth playing soccer on a very small field.
Their goal was painted on a brick wall, uneven field. And once I got to know a lot of the children up in the area, we saw several of those kids was outstanding with soccer. And I'm going to use Michael, a young man. Michael was probably about the age of eleven when he first started with us. Now he's 14 years old.
He's been a part of about four different soccer teams. This great, this young man, good. This young man is. He started with us. We trained him with some of the coaches that came out and supported the youth impact for free. And now Michael is one of the top soccer players that's out there. Youth soccer players that's out there playing with Burrell High School and other weekend leagues. Love for Mike to come play with him because he averaged about two goals per season. And Justin is another young man that started with us, with our flag football, that went on and started playing basketball with us. Justin was, whoa. He was a handful, believe me.
Behavior problems that Justin had, attitude.
Once he started playing basketball with us at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, we had pastor Mike come out and do a devotion with our kids and was teaching them the, I mean, Justin became one of the leaders every night leading off in the Lord's prayer. And just seeing him a couple of weeks ago at Lakeview Middle School, he ran up to me and say, Mr. Stacey, guess what? I just made the basketball team.
[00:08:07] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: At Lakeview Middle School, we knew three things had to happen before he was part of that basketball team.
His referrals had to go down. He have no referrals. His grades had to increase. His grades came up and he was at school every single day.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: That's awesome. That's awesome. And as we wrap this up, Stacey, tell me, because I know how important or what an impact this made. So pre NFL season, year before last, share with our listeners what happened as far as Atlanta Falcons and you taking.
[00:08:54] Speaker C: Was, I'm being honest with you, that's a story in itself.
First of all, I'd like to thank our director here, Mr. Philip Clark, for giving us that opportunity to take these kids down to Atlanta Falcon and the Jacksonville Jaguar football game. We took twelve kids to the game, which they really enjoyed. And this is another story that came out of this event. I didn't realize one of the young men had been playing basketball with us for three years, him and his cousin. We was taking them to chick fil a to get a little snack, and they kept looking back. It's almost like that Mike commercial. You tell them, you eat it, you eat it. And so one of them looked back and kept saying, you talked to Mr. Stacey? And I was like, okay, what they want to say? The other one said, no. You said, so JJ turned around and said, Mr. Stacey, I just want to let you know, this is the best birthday present I have ever had coming to a pro football game. I said, today's your birthday. He was like, man, not only is my birthday, this is the best birthday present I ever had. And his cousin said, you know, Mr. Stacey, I've never been outside my community besides school. This is the biggest trip I have ever been.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Wow. Wow. That just goes to show that you never know where a child is coming yeah. And you never know what a new experience will provide them. One for self esteem, but also it gives them a sense, hopefully, of purpose.
And so, Stacey, I want to commend you for the fantastic work you do with the youth in our community.
And we named the program impact for a reason. Because Stacey and our team here, we are making an impact on the youth in our community. We need volunteers. We need additional support from the community.
And so if you want to find out more about impact, go to our website, just saysomethingsc.org. Or if you want to give us a call and talk to Mr. Stacy or autumn, you can call us at area code 864-467-4099 and Stacey, as we close out this particular episode, what sport is next for impact?
[00:11:35] Speaker C: Well, we're going to start working on probably next month, we're going to start working on our flag football. Right now we are doing basketball. We still hadn't found a gym. They are bouncing around from place to place.
They have had some outdoor practice.
But basketball is right now and flag football is coming up.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: So if you're out there and you're listening and you have access to a gym, we need a place, preferably free for us to be able to work with the youth on basketball. And then I know in the springtime, once the time changes and the weather straightens up a little bit, we'll have soccer going on, but we'll also have flag football, which is the new Olympic sport coming to the next. You know, you were ahead of the curve, Mr. Stacy.
[00:12:31] Speaker C: We are trying to get ahead of it, and we can get further ahead.
Mr. Clark, if we just had some donors, weekly donors, monthly donors, or one big time donor to come in to support some of these youth in these undeserved.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: Right, right. And a little bit goes a long way.
[00:12:51] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: All right. Well, Mr. Stacey, I want to thank you again for being with us today, sharing with our audience about impact. And again, if you want to find out more about impact, go to our website, just saysomethingsc.org or give us a call, 864-467-4099 thanks again for listening and look forward to seeing you next week.
[00:13:23] Speaker C: Thank you.
