Muncie Boys and Girls Club
1710 S Madison St, Muncie, IN 47302
Volunteer application: http://www.bgcmuncie.org/volunteer/
What started as a way for one Muncie native to hang out with friends has become a career and a place to give back.
Antonio Benford, who attended the Muncie Boys and Girls Club himself, is now the unit director. He lived by Heekin Park and started going with his friends when he was 8.
“I would always want to be here and would get here any way I could,” Benford said. “My friends were here, there were mentors here, it was a safe place where I felt I could really be myself.”
When he was starting high school, Benford was approached by the athletic coordinator at the time, Corey Downs. Downs asked him to be on his Amateur Athletic Union basketball team.
“I’ll never forget that conversation,” Benford said. “Before I had only played because my friends did. I didn’t really think of myself as good or anything, but he saw something in me that I didn’t see.”
Because he spent a lot of his time traveling with the AAU team, Benford didn’t go to the Boys and Girls Club as often, though he said he still made an effort to be there when he could.
After graduating from high school, Benford received a scholarship to play basketball at Bethel College in Mishawaka. He graduated with a degree in sports management in 2010.
When he returned to the club, he started as a gym coordinator. Benford said he’s had “basically every role” in the past five years.
As unit director for the club, he works with members, parents, staff, volunteers and oversees the facility. On the weekends, Benford gives basketball training sessions to kids.
“I love interacting with the members and parents,” Benford said. “I’m not interested in titles; I’m interested in changing kids’ lives. And it’s not just me, they can be changed by anyone here.”
Benford is recognized as a “Boys and Girls Club kid” as well as a local, and he said that’s his biggest asset.
“I was what they call an ‘at-risk’ child,” he said. “I know who these kids are, the community. I know what it’s like to live at the poverty line. It’s nothing that can be taught, it’s in my blood.”
Chris Mack has only worked at the Boys and Girls Club for a few months, but has been working closely with Benford. Mack, a team program assistant, said Benford is a mentor to him as well.
“There are lots of things to learn from him,” Mack said. “He’s an incredible mentor. I’m leaving [the] club almost every day learning something new from him.”
Mack said Benford makes a safe environment for the kids and trains the staff so they can best serve the kids.
“He has a passion behind what he does and you can see it,” Mack said. “It rubs off on me, too.”
Benford said having the story of being a "Boys and Girls Club kid" is what makes his job great.
“Being able to come back to this one club and showing [the kids] you can make it, you can come back from living with just your mom or grandma, that’s what it’s about,” Benford said. “It’s about being a positive influence. I don’t do it for a change for tomorrow or a change in a year, but I know these kids will have these stories years from now when they’re 20 or so, and that’s why I do this.”
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