Gregory Freeman: Summer Advice: 'Listen To Kids'. 7/18/1993

Headline: SUMMER ADVICE: `LISTEN TO KIDS'
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Jul. 18, 1993
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 4B, Edition: FIVE STAR

WHEN IT COMES to working with young people, few in St. Louis have the experience of Martin L. Mathews.
Mathews is executive director of the Mathews-Dickey Boys' Club, and he's been working with youngsters for 35 years. Some 40,000 kids - boys and girls - go through the club each year.

So as we go through the annual ritual of wondering whether this will be a "long, hot summer, " Mathews offers this advice: "Listen to the kids."
Mathews believes that adults often set up programs to help youngsters without paying attention to what they want.
"They know what they want and need better than anyone else, " he said in an interview. "They know how to deal with problems. But often we don't take the time to listen to them."

Mathews recalled meeting with some Los Angeles gang members two years ago.
"I asked them why they joined gangs. They told me, `We have nothing else to do.' To them, the gang was like an extended family. Maybe they couldn't find the love or somebody who cared about them at home or on the block. In some cases, they didn't have positive role models or fathers in their lives. In the gang, they found somebody who loved them, somebody who was willing to die for them."

The phrase "long, hot summer" refers to kids causing trouble while school is out.
"Years ago, there were plenty of places in the city for kids to work in the summer to make a little money, " Mathews said. "There were `mom and pop' stores, drugstores, paper routes. All those places used to employ kids. Now they're gone, and if a kid isn't lucky enough to get a job at McDonald's or Hardee's, he's out of luck. And some kids turn to drugs."

If money were no object - a mythical concept, for sure - Mathews would like to see all of the playgrounds and community centers in the area opened.
"Kids have no place to go, and that's why you see more trouble in the summer, " he said. "It would be great if the community schools were open all summer where kids could have somewhere to go, as well as someplace to get some counseling when they needed it."

One program in which the club takes part - and one that is giving youngsters something to do this summer - is sponsored by the Cardinals and major league baseball. The two entities sponsor some 60 baseball teams across the metropolitan area. Similar programs are going on in other cities, and an entire series of games will be played later this summer at Busch Stadium and at Mathews-Dickey's Cool Papa Bell Stadium.
"Every kid wants to become an Ozzie Smith, " Mathews said. "This will give a lot of kids who otherwise don't have a chance to play on an organized team an opportunity."

While some view sports as mere fun and games, Mathews thinks of them as a means to communicate with young people.
"Sports gets kids' attention, " he said. "Once you've got that, you can tell them all the things that they need to do to be a proper citizen. But first, you've got to get their attention."

Mathews spoke highly of a program that the club started a couple of years ago. It's called the MVP, or Motivation, Vocation & Preparation anti-gang program, and works with students from city high schools. It stresses academics, self-discipline and self-esteem. Like other Mathews-Dickey programs, it focuses on sports as a jumping-off point, as it works to build discipline. Academic and cultural development and work skills are also stressed through such things as field trips and visits to symphony concerts.
"We want kids to realize that somebody cares about them and to learn to do their best, " Mathews said.

In his office, at 4245 North Kingshighway, Mathews' walls are covered with photographs of young people, many of whom, he says, have gone on to do great things.
   He loves to talk about Taylor Fields, a young man with whom the club worked some 30 years ago. "His dad was sending his older brother through college and was a working man who couldn't afford to send him, " Mathews said. "But he was a good kid."
   Mathews got in touch with Leroy Tyus, then a Democratic committeeman, and asked him to help Fields find a job. Tyus relented - "I think just to get rid of me, " Mathews said - and suggested that Fields check with McDonnell Douglas Corp., which was hiring. Fields did so and got a job.
   "By September, he had made enough money to get into college, " Mathews said. "He ended up with a chemical engineering degree, and when he got out, a lot of places wanted to hire him."
   Fields chose one company because it agreed to send him to law school.
   "Today, he's head of one of the biggest law firms in Kansas City and he's now on the school board there, " Mathews said.

"There are plenty of kids out there who have that same potential today.
"We just have to learn to prepare ourselves to be the best.
As Dizzy Dean used to say, `If you can't be the best, be among them.' "

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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