Glidewell, Boys & Girls Club garner Maytag honor

The Fort Smith Boys & Girls Club is in line for national exposure with the launch of Maytag’s “What’s Inside Matters” campaign that recognizes Club Executive Director Jerry Glidewell as one of the first four honorees.

It’s the promise of national recognition that convinced Glidewell, who has been with the Fort Smith program for 29 years, to accept being singled out.

“To me it’s about the organization and the stability of the organization during the past 83 years,” Glidewell said when first asked about the Maytag honor. “I’m more behind the scenes, but if it would really help the organization, I wasn’t going to say, ‘No.’

Maytag’s new marketing campaign includes a “Faces of Dependability” element designed to promote the company’s ongoing relationship with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America “as well as start a conversation about the quality they value most — dependability.”

The first four “Faces of Dependability” are:
• Latisha Franklin, Club manager, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, Wis.;
• Jerry Glidewell, executive director, Fort Smith Boys & Girls Clubs in Fort Smith, Ark.;
• Patrick J. Larkin, chief professional officer, Camp Lejeune Youth Activities, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and,
• James Seaton, unit director, Boys & Girls Club of Lenawee in Adrian, Mich.

“Maytag brand is pleased to bring James, Jerry, Latisha and Patrick to the forefront and recognize their dependability, strength and dedication in inspiring others to perform to their potential,” William Beck, director of Maytag marketing, said in a statement. “We also chose to launch our new ‘Faces of Dependability’ recognition program with Boys & Girls Clubs of America because they have a strong heritage of dependability, going back more than 100 years. They serve nearly four million youth annually helping them become productive, caring, responsible citizens.”

Club directors from around the country were nominated by the local clubs or regional directors. According to Maytag, the directors were selected for their “performance and dependable service to the community, the Club” and the members.

Glidewell repeatedly noted during a recent interview that the strength of the club has nothing to do with individuals and everything to do with a dedicated board and volunteers.

“The theme is dependability … and I learned that from our board of directors,” Glidewell said. “We have (board) members with more than 40 and 50 years of service and several volunteers with more than 35 years of service. … That’s how you build (a program), with people that give and give and give.”

Glidewell mentioned several volunteers and board members, including Adam Webster, who coached Auburn Tigers Offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn at the Evans Boys & Girls Club, and Buzz Wood and Joe Munday who have at or more than 40 years service as a volunteers.

Malzahn, who rose to national prominence this year when the Auburn Tigers won the NCAA championship, recently received an honorarium for a speaking engagement.

“He just had the check sent to the Fort Smith Boys & Girls Clubs,” Glidewell said, adding that former Boys & Girls Club members who find success in life are “very generous” in remembering the club.

Malzahn is one of five other reasons Glidewell said he and the club were selected by Maytag. In addition to Malzahn, former club members who recently had nationally-recognized success in their endeavors are:
• U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Rogers, who won the Senate seat in November 2012;
• Kodi Burns, a wide receiver and quarterback with the NCAA champion Auburn Tigers;
• Miss Arkansas Alyse Eady, who was the runner-up in the Miss America Pageant; and,
• Brett Goode, the long snapper with the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers.

“With those five, it is like wow, all of these things were suddenly happening to members of the Fort Smith Boys & Girls Club,” Glidewell said.

However, Glidewell said he is quick to remind the board and volunteers that the work is never finished.

“But I remind our club volunteers that we also have some former members in prison. You know, so, you can’t win them all, you can’t turn all of them around. … What is happening, I believe, is that we are impacting those young men and women on the bubble, the kids who could go either way,” Glidewell explained.

The work with club members will be part of a national video promoted by Maytag. Glidewell said a video crew from Chicago was in Fort Smith about a month ago, spending most of the day at the Evans Boys & Girls Club.

“We’re kind of excited to see what that final video looks like,” Glidewell said.