Rotary Community Heroes of Hope

Discover How Rotary is Changing the Future, One Youth at a Time

• Judy Zulfiqar

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Community. Heroes of Hope, a podcast where we shine a light on the remarkable individuals and projects in Rotary District 5330 that bring hope and change to our local and global communities. I am Judy Zelfikar, your co-host and the current District Governor of Rotary District 5330.

Speaker 2:

And I'm Niren McLean, the Rotary District Governor-Elect, and I'm Niren McLean, the Rotary District Governor-Elect. Together, we're diving deep into the heart of the community service, showcasing the impact of dedication and collaboration in addressing some of the most pressing challenges our communities face.

Speaker 1:

Each episode, we'll tell stories of incredible people making a difference, innovating solutions and inspiring others to take action.

Speaker 2:

We'll also be giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the projects that are transforming their lives, and we'll discuss how you, too, can get involved, contribute and be part of the positive change. Whether you're a seasoned Rotarian or just looking to give back, this podcast is for you.

Speaker 1:

So join us as we explore the journeys, challenges and successes of people like you who have stepped up to make a difference. Let's celebrate the spirit of community and the power of hope together.

Speaker 2:

Don't forget to subscribe to the Community Heroes of Hope on your favorite podcast platform. Stay with us on this journey of inspiration and let's spread the message of hope further than ever.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for tuning in. Let's get started. We are very lucky today to have one of our Rotary International Presidents in District 5330, shane, along with us and looking forward to having a really great conversation about some of the work that they've been doing with their local Boys and Girls Club. What do you think about that, niren?

Speaker 2:

I think that's fabulous. The boys and girls are the future, and I love the fact that he's focusing on changing lives, particularly changing young lives.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Well, Shane, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about being president of your club, as well as the other job that you do for your business, and we'll take it from there.

Speaker 3:

Definitely Well, thank you. My name is Shane Arch. I am the president of the San Gregorio Pass Rotary Club in the city of Banning and in my nine-to-five, I am the team director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the San Gregorio Pass.

Speaker 1:

That's wonderful.

Speaker 3:

Now, how many members do you have in your club? Oh so I oversee two separate team centers, one in the city of Banning and one in the city of Beaumont. Our Beaumont site has just started, so we're building over there. In the city of Banning, we see about 20 to 30 members per day.

Speaker 1:

And how many people did you say that? How many you had in your Rotary Club? Oh, I'm sorry, and in our Rotary Club we have about 20 to 30 members. Wonderful, and tell us a little bit about this project. What started the idea and how did you guys come about to picking this project for the Boys and Girls Club?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so as team director, I'm dealing with youth on a daily basis. It's definitely a passion of mine, and at the time I wasn't president yet but when I thought about people who shared that value and people who would care about helping the youth the same way that I do, I instantly thought of Rotary. I instantly thought of my club and I came and presented to them something about esports, explaining what esports are right, which are multiplayer video games that are played in highly organized, competitive environments. So it's just like college football I'm sorry, high school football or high school basketball, but the focus is video games. Um, so, bringing that to the club, I I got to share a little bit about my vision for it, and the club was gracious enough to sponsor, uh, our es arena, which is actually named after the San Gregorio Pass, now San Gregorio Pass Rotary Club.

Speaker 2:

Can you describe the typical kid that is part of the Boys and Girls Club and what you do for them?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, definitely. The average kid that we're serving in the city of Banning is coming from a single-family home. I'm sorry, single parent home. I want to say about 80% of the youth here are under the poverty line, so there's a huge need for mentors and for the work that we're doing here in the city. Does that answer the question?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it does. Are they primarily teenagers? Do you go younger than that? Do you provide after school programs?

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, so an overview of our organization. Yes, we, we serve youth from kindergarten all the way up to senior year in high school. The sites that I oversee are both teen centers, which is going to be freshmen all the way to senior year in high school.

Speaker 1:

That is so amazing. When we were first talking about this, when I visited your club and I was thinking of an arena I it just dawned on me that this is a completely different kind of concept. I'd never heard of esports. And so what does this arena visually look like?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so it's a medium-sized room. It's filled with LED lights. It's pretty amazing. So we have these sconces on the wall, these lights that point up to the ceiling, and they actually react to music. So when we have a game, when it's our game day, our kids are coming out. Just like it's like the Super Bowl they're coming out to music and the lights pulsating to the music.

Speaker 3:

How fun. There's a lot of video game posters and then we have along one wall five stations of Xboxes, which is our primary platform to play on Right, and we play team centers across the nation competitively.

Speaker 1:

Oh my goodness. So they're cheering for your team center or cheering for one of the people that are playing? Is that how that works?

Speaker 3:

Yes, yeah it looks. I mean, it's just like a huge sporting event. We'll have five main players, We'll have some subs and then the rest of our teams here at the Teen Center will come gather around and they'll cheer everyone on.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing. So are you playing other boys and girls clubs? Are you playing in a specialized type of league? How does one get on the team and who are you playing? So?

Speaker 3:

we typically are playing other boys and girls clubs, but esports is a growing field so we actually have esports is now recognized by the CIF, which is basically the California Intercontinental Federation. I'm sorry, I don't know what CIF stands for?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that's what it stands for.

Speaker 3:

It means that it's an actual sport. Just like basketball, football is recognized by high schools, so luckily we're able to compete. We scrimmage against, uh, our local high schools, um, but it's typically our boys and girls club teen centers that we're going against and to get on the team, um, every season we try to change up the game that we're playing. So one season there may be a racing game and the next season there might be a fighting game. And every season we hold some tryouts. We put our kids in order of like, highest skilled to the ones that need a little bit of work, and they compete against similarly skilled members from other clubs similarly skilled members from other clubs.

Speaker 3:

How have you seen that this has impacted the students that are in your care? Oh yeah, it's a tremendous impact. I mean, typically and historically, we pretty much always focused on sports, right, so that's something normal from city to city the football kids, the jocks, if you will Everyone knows those kids. They know what sort of skills you have to have for sports like that. But every kid doesn't have those types of skills. You know there's different types of skills other than merely the physical, and the e-sports team provides an opportunity for kids with a different skill set to also shine.

Speaker 2:

Sean, have you seen and this may be an unfair question, but I'm wondering have you been able to see any kind of correlation between the development of skills for the esports team and either a kid's grades in school or their social progression at all? Do they develop additional confidence? I'm wondering what kind of benefits you might have been able to see with kids who play the esports.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, definitely. So there's definitely a social aspect because there's some leadership involved. There's a lot of what we call call outs right. So if there's an enemy to your left, you have to be able to communicate that effectively and in a way that your team is going to be able to understand, to see that threat and address it. So there's a building of social skills, for sure, which is something that we tend to focus on because in a post-COVID world, all of those kids that distance learned or were distance learning, they missed out on some of those formative years of social building, building the social skills. In addition to that, there is a little bit of a correlation between grades, because we force it In order to play on this team, you must have a 2.0 with no Fs at least, so we're making sure that grades are coming first every time.

Speaker 1:

And how long have you been doing this program at your facility?

Speaker 3:

So the program is about three years old, and then we really got into our stride about a year or so ago and you know that's when we got our e-sports arena and, yeah, I'd say nationwide e-sports, really the next big thing, yeah.

Speaker 1:

That it's a great program that you've brought to this Rotary Club. Shane, I'd like to shift a little bit because I'd like to talk to you about your presidency. You, in the world of Rotary, are a fairly young president. Tell me about why you decided to join Rotary and what brought you to become president become president.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so my one of my passions is just to help. That's something that I thought I was doing a really great job of, and I had a friend of mine who was a member of our club who shared with me, really put it in perspective for me that maybe I wasn't doing as much as I thought I was, maybe there were some other ways to multiply the work that I was doing. And he brought me to a club meeting. When I was able to see the types of work that our Rotary Club was doing, I was just floored. I was impressed. I hadn't heard about Rotary before then and I just never left it. It just felt like home. So as soon as I had an opportunity to help in any significant way, I started off by becoming the youth chair. That really fits in with my work as a team director, and then, when the opportunity came up to lead, you know, I just jumped in with both feet. If not me, you know then who.

Speaker 2:

Right. So, sean, let me ask you a question, because you said something that really made me curious. You said it felt like home. What made you feel so comfortable when you joined the club, in particular?

Speaker 3:

actually there were a few members who in some ways sort of reminded me of family. We have a member, Dan, who tells a joke every week, Every week, without fail. He tells a joke and the worse it is, the more he has to pay for it as a little joke. And then we also have members like Mayda, who will look at the calendar for those unofficial holidays. I think our last meeting was National Apricot Day.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I love it she will bake every week.

Speaker 3:

So if it's Apricot Day, we're getting apricot tarts or something like that, or if it's Chocolate Day, or toffee or what have you, and that reminds me of my grandmother. You know that, just it just felt like home.

Speaker 2:

Okay, excellent, excellent.

Speaker 1:

And what would you say to other young professionals like yourself when they're looking for maybe leadership, maybe giving back to the community?

Speaker 3:

Why would you say that Rotary is a good option for them as it is for you? It's definitely a great opportunity to put theory to test. You know, as I said, I believe that I was doing a lot in the community. I also believed I was a great leader. That's all fine until you actually get a chance to put it to the test. Rotary was a great opportunity to deal with a lot of different personalities, all great people who share the same goal, which is a lot like most places you're going to work throughout life. So this was one of my first opportunities to really put myself in a position of authority and really see what I could do, especially coming out of school getting a degree in business.

Speaker 2:

That's fascinating. So how let me ask you this then how can we attract more Shane's? What does Rotary have to do to attract more Shane's?

Speaker 3:

Well, I do think. I think, as we all know and we probably all say all the time is, Rotary is the best kept secret. You know it's a great organization, we're literally changing the world. Secret. You know it's a great organization, we're literally changing the world. And I think our biggest hurdle is that most people just don't know what we are, what we do. I can tell you if, if we probably had some more afternoon and evening clubs, that might help a little bit, that helps right.

Speaker 1:

Yours is a very early morning club. I did enjoy that, but my club meets at 7am.

Speaker 3:

So it's, yeah, it can be a challenge for some young people, but I think once they see the work that we do and the impact that we have on our communities, that's going to trump everything else. All of the hardship, all of the difficulties of waking up, you know, and luckily for me, some of the work that my club does I get to see on a daily basis when I drive by parks and see the trees we planted, um, when I see those people that I've connected with at our Thanksgiving um event or, uh, just recently we did a, an activity for seniors in our community, helping them, teaching them tips on how to make ends meet on a fixed income that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

Well, we're really excited that you are president. You have you've had a great start to your year. We still have six months to go. Any other final thoughts that you would have about this program or any other programs that you're you're proud of in your club?

Speaker 3:

um, I'm just proud of my club in general. I mean, I, you know, an all rotary club. You know, every time I get to see someone else from another club, I work closely with our Beaumont club, our next door neighbors, and every time I get to hear about all the great things that we're doing, it just fills me with joy. So, you know, I'll continue to share the good message about what we're doing here, and it's actually a personal goal of mine to attract more shames.

Speaker 1:

Well, good, we're talking to the right person and we love that and I think there's another Rotaract Club in the works too, right? How are you guys doing on that?

Speaker 3:

Yes, I actually just got a chance to go up to Pride for my first time.

Speaker 1:

It's fun, huh.

Speaker 3:

It is. It's great. Me and my wife we're both Rotarians we went up there. That was a great time and I met a lot of Rotaractors, neighboring Rotaractors, so they're going to help me try to build my Rotaract club in my area and, yeah, things are looking bright.

Speaker 1:

Well, Nyron, as the incoming district governor and me as the current district governor, we're cheering you on. We're so excited that you are part of Rotary, that you've taken this leadership position and are being such a great example in our community of exactly the service of self that Rotary does throughout the world. Thank you All, right Well, have a great day and thanks for joining us today, and we look forward to you sharing this podcast with all those future Rotarian Shanes that are going to be coming into our district, will do All right.

Speaker 1:

Have a good day.

Speaker 2:

Bye.

Speaker 1:

So that wraps up this episode of Heroes of Hope. We are so happy that we have an audience out there listening. We want you to subscribe, share and tell your friends about the Rotary Community Heroes of Hope, because that's how we get the word out about the impact we're having in this world.