HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Skip Wilson with the Hutchinson Boys and Girls Club talked this week about the many mentors he's had that helped him succeed in his time in Hutchinson.
"Les Keller, Les was probably my first mentor when he ran the recreation commission, I remember him telling me, you make sure that, as you move on with your career, you surround yourself with quality people," Wilson said. "What he meant by that, I found out later was, not the best in the field, that's nice to have, but he said, just good people, people that have a heart, people that believe in your mission and people that will go to bat for those young people that you are working for."
Wilson said the goal to give kids some individual that they can feel safe with reaches back all the way through his career.
"We started our program, you've got to understand, before there was Boys and Girls Club, there was Kids After School," Wilson said. "Kids After School was in a ton of elementaries within our community and what we wanted to do was just keep the kids safe after school. That was our mission. We wanted to keep the kids safe after school. We knew that the toughest times for our young people even now was like that 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. We wanted to keep them safe, and so what happened through that, was we realized that we've got them at some peak times to where we can actually make a difference and we can do it in a fun and educational way that they will enjoy."
Having the heart to make that one on one connection is the key to being a successful Vision Leader, as Wilson sees it.
"Where's your time for these vision leaders to just sit down with that young person and communicate with them, to talk to them and so forth?," Wilson said. "You can do it through games, but it's also important, you know, to have those little one on one conversations. I think, through our tenure that we've had, we've seen that a lot. We've told our vision leaders, that's okay. If you have to take away from a game and you have to go out because that young person needs you, you go, because that young person is the most important."
Wilson knows that it doesn't matter which of the staff finds a connection with an individual kid, but just that someone does, that there is someone that child trusts when it comes time to make the big decisions in life, because having that kind of relationship is the key to making sure that whatever a club member's passion is, that they can find a way to follow it.