TOLEDO, Ohio — It all started when Andre McCallum came back home to Toledo. Wanting to help his community and the kids, he founded Toledo ARK to teach boxing, as well as other life skills.
"Our children are the youth and they are our future," said Andre. "If we can teach them the things that we've learned to avoid certain mistakes, we can actually set up and put them in a position to be better children and ultimately better adults. "
After almost a year of growing with the community with the boxing program, McCallum says expanding the program to include basketball was a way to bring in even more kids. In just the first week, 20 to 30 more kids show showed up.
"We're having a great turnout already. The children are coming in and enjoying it," said Andre. "They are building relationships with other kids."
ARK Head Coach, John McCallum, has been a basketball coach for years and says the sport can help kids learn proper discipline.
"Y'know when you're talking, try to make sure they're not talking while you're not talking," said John. "Some of the kids are really young, so it's harder dealing with the younger ones. But just getting them to listen and getting them to pay attention when you're talking, make sure they're not talking, so they'll learn better. "
With these teachings of discipline, the hope is for these kids to take their lessons out into the world, and not just leave them on the court.
"If you don't do certain things, there's certain consequences," said Andre. "So those things kind of go off into the outside world. They realize 'Wait. If I don't do this, there's consequences in the world. "
And the program isn't all about learning a sport, there are mental health exercises as well.
"I've seen a big change in some of the kids. Some of the kids come and they don't have any aspects on how to play the game at all. Some of them don't want to be here," said John. "But once we start having fun, it makes them want to participate more."
You can find the ARK Basketball Program at Keyser Elementary in the Gym every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. From 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. It's open to kids aged 6-14.
Click here for more information.
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