Small Gym, Big Impact: Chicago Youth Boxing Finalist at Beyond Sport Summit in South Africa

Posted by on September 8, 2011 in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Small Gym, Big Impact: Chicago Youth Boxing Finalist at Beyond Sport Summit in South Africa

By: Carlos Acevedo

Lawndale News Chicago's Bilingual Newspaper - Local NewsAmong the Little Village community, where you often hear about drugs, shootings, and stabbings, sits a small non-profit organization that not many hear or read about, the Chicago Youth Boxing Club (CYBC). If you walk into the CYBC, located at 2300 S. Millard Street, you immediately notice kids jumping rope, punching the heavy bags, working the speed bag and sparring with the coach inside the ring. “Coaches at CYBC volunteer at least 25 hours a week, they don’t get paid, but we all want to be there for our youth and better our community. The parents are always involved and help us when something breaks…we are like a small family,” said Head Coach Gabriel Navarro. So how is this small gym making an impact?

H20 Project
In 2009, CYBC Board President, Karen May said that they received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation through their International Connections Fund. The grant was used for their H20 for Mexico project, which engaged youth in leadership and peace-building efforts that encourage water conservation, bring awareness to water scarcity and build multi-cultural and multi-ethnic international cooperation in addressing water shortages.

The H20 for Mexico project took 12 kids from the Little Village community to Tamaula, a rural town in Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico that sits atop of an extinct volcano. CYBC reached out to the youth in Tamaula and educated them on fitness, nutrition and did sparring exhibitions. CYBC Head Coach, Gabriel Navarro remembers how the kids from Tamaula would show up to train in jeans, long sleeve shirts and dress shoes.

“They didn’t have exercise clothes and they would even play soccer in dress shoes. They would tell me that dress shoes are better than being barefoot because there are a lot of rocks. My role was to teach the kids basic boxing and find one kid to take over the program and make him a leader, and he’s still in charge of the program which has been in place for two years already,” said Navarro. During their stay, the CYBC assisted in setting up a gym with heavy bags and speed bags for the community.

Lawndale News Chicago's Bilingual Newspaper - Local News“At the end of the trip we found out about the United Nations World Water Day campaign, so we thought about doing a campaign around that to raise money,” said May. Fundraising efforts raised over $10,500 that supported the construction of 35 household level cisterns. The cisterns help families in Tamaula catch rainwater for drinking and cooking. One rainfall will fill a cistern with 5,000 liters and provide water for two weeks. This campaign had donor support from France, Mexico and the United States. Locally, Erie Neighborhood House, Poder Learning Center, The University of Notre Dame and Utah Valley University also assisted in the success of this project.

Beyond Sports Awards 2011
“We applied for the Sport for the Environment Award and out of 40 applications in our category, we were selected among the Top 3 finalist,” said May. CYBC will find out if they win the first place award at the Beyond Sport Summit, which will take place in Cape Town, South Africa on December 5-8, 2011. “What we need really is for people to know who we are. We always invite people to come visit the gym anytime, see who we are and talk to the kids. People will find that they are really, really good kids,” said May.

CYBC Future
May said the CYBC will have their first statewide tournament in October 14th and 15th. “Power Gloves is a fundraiser for us and we will have eight weight classes, twenty to thirty boxers and we are looking for sponsorships for belts and the overall tournament, but mostly just to come out hear from our kids and see what they do,” said May. “I see this gym being as big as Windy City Gym was, in about ten to fifteen years just because of Karen and all the board members, they are very smart people… a lot of good things are happening,” said Navarro. Navarro said he recently got a call from a boxing organization in Ireland who wants to sponsor a CYBC team of fighters to travel and train with them. For more information on upcoming events, please call: 773-521-9555 or stop by anytime between 3:00 and 8:00 p.m.
CYBC Wish List

  • Gloves (Title or Ringside)
  • Heavy bag and Speed bags
  • Mats
  • Treadmills
  • Your time and donations

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