pollywood
INTERVIEW
magnificent mentor
Acclaimed actor/director Denzel Washington reflects on how the Boys & Girls Clubs shaped his life. BY
Erica Moody
Denzel Washington and Whitney Stewart (Photo by Tony Powell)
W
hen Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington came to town last month, it wasn’t for a new film but to promote another role he’s held for more than 20 years — that of Boys & Girls Clubs of America spokesman. As a young boy, with both of his parents working long hours outside the home,Washington spent much of his free time at his local club in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., an after-school refuge that he claims saved his life by giving him the hope and the confidence to dream big. Years later, he’s still paying it forward. Washington, 60, met us at the National Press Club the morning after the organization’s annual Youth of the Year gala, bringing with him honored youth Whitney Stewart, 18, of Sarasota County, Fla. Stewart served on the BGCA National Teen
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Advisory Board, was Keystone Club president and founded the student group SEED to SOIL to educate young people about healthy lifestyles and sustainable agriculture — all while helping her mom care for her younger siblings. Now in her first year at the University of Pennsylvania, she plans to become a U.S. Air Force attorney. Exhibiting humor and humility, the superstar mentor and his mentee shared what their involvement with the club means to them. Washington Life: You often talk about how the Boys & Girls Clubs shaped your youth. Where do you think you’d be today if there hadn’t been a Boys & Girls Club? Denzel Washington: Oh boy, God only knows. It wouldn’t have been good ... but fortunately I had a club in my neighborhood and from the
age of six until now I’ve been connected with the club. WL: How did that start? DW: I remember when they started building the club. I would pass it on the way to elementary school every day and just wondered what this building was, and then I started finding out that young people were going there and I asked my mother at six to sign me up. She took me down and the rest is history. WL: When you were in the Boys & Girls Club as a youth did you ever imagine yourself as an actor or director? And how did the club help prepare you for your success? DW: There was a guy named, God rest his soul, Wayne Bridges. His son is Chris Bridges, known as
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Denzel Washington with his own childhood photo behind him at a Boys & Girls Clubs benefit (Photo Courtesy of BGCGW)
Ludacris.Wayne and I won the talent show at our local Mount Vernon club.We played the Beatles. WL: Ok. What song? DW: “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It was big. I remember us going out and buying Beatles wigs at a bargain store.You’re too young to remember that you were able to buy Beatles wigs. That was the only part of the song we knew and, needless to say, we won and that started my career [Laughs]. No, but we did win. WL: Why is it important for Washingtonians to support their local Boys & Girls Clubs, and in what ways can they help? Whitney Stewart: It’s really important because there are so many youth out there who need support systems and they need people in their lives to say, “Your life does matter and you can go on to live a life of greatness.” [It is important] to have that constant support system, especially when a lot of youth today are living lives that are very uncertain. It’s necessary to have really great mentors. WL: Do you have any mentors? DW: I have a lot of mentors. Billy Thomas became the director of the club that I grew up in. When I started there I think he just ran the gym, but he was a dominant personality in my youth away from home and I’ve never
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forgotten and never will. WL: Besides your own, what’s one of your favorite Boys & Girls Clubs success stories? DW: That’s a good question for you, Whitney, besides yourself and me? WS: One of the kids that I grew up with had a father who was incarcerated and a mother who was ruled unfit to take care of his family and he didn’t allow his life circumstances to define him. He was able to graduate from high school and he’s now in college. I just remember seeing the transformation from him being more of an angry person to being so full of life and so positive and always building people up around him. He’s a true leader, a true testament to what the Boys & Girls Club does. I consider him to be very successful and I am so inspired by who he is as a person. WL: We are equally inspired by Washington and Stewart, one BGCA alum who’s reached the pinnacle of success and one who is well on her way. Washington broke out into song as we took his photo, snapping his fingers to “Ooh Child (Things Are Gonna Get Easier)” and encouraging us to sing along. His goodnatured enthusiasm is infectious and was no doubt honed by his involvement with the organization that shaped his life, a safe place to learn and grow — all while having fun.
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THINKING BIG
Excerpts from ‘A Hand to Guide Me’ by Denzel Washington We’re all destined to leave some kind of mark. I really believe that. We’re all meant to walk a certain path at a certain time in a certain direction for a certain purpose. I believe that too. But I also believe that we miss our marks from time to time, and without a certain push in the right direction we might never find the path we were meant to follow. For me, the first push outside my own home came at the Boys Club … in my neighborhood the Boys Club was the center of everything. It was my whole world, just about, from the time I was six years old. It was where I learned how to play ball, where I learned how to focus and set my mind on a goal, where I learned about consequences, where I learned how to be a man. The Boys Club, that’s where I looked for hope and purpose and direction. That’s where I learned to dream —to think big — and for that I’ve got to give Billy Thomas his props. He had us thinking that anything was possible and that even the sky didn’t present any kind of limit. That type of thinking was essential for a kid like me. Hey, it’s key for every kid, but it’s especially important for kids who might be too easily tempted to turn down some lesser road.
Every day in America, over 15 million children are left unsupervised after school. In the summer, 43 million children don’t have access to critical summer learning programs. Ensure that every child, regardless of circumstance, gets the tools for a great future by supporting BGCA this holiday season. Visit greatfutures.org for details.
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