Driven to serve: Boys & Girls Clubs helped shape Emma Sanders' aspirations

Sanders was Flagler County's first club member and the youngest Youth of the Year winner for the Volusia/Flagler area.

By Brent Woronoff
| 7:00 a.m. June 9, 2022

Emma Sanders recently stopped by at the George Washington Carver Center where she became Flagler County's first Boys and Girls Club member. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Emma Sanders was the youngest Volusia/Flagler Youth of the Year winner in 2005. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia/Flagler Counties Chief Professional Officer Joe Sullivan with Flagler County club member Malik Murray and professional specialist Simone Gonzalez. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Circuit Judge A. Kathleen McNeilly with Boys & Girls Club members at the Steak & Steak Gala at Hilton Daytona Beach. Courtesy photo

Flagler County unit director Carolyn Thompson with Volusia/Flagler Chief Professional Officer Joe Sullivan at Rymfire Elementary School. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Boys & Girls Club members at the Volusia/Flagler Steak & Steak Gala. Courtesy photo

Kids pose by a miniature race car at the Steak & Steak Gala. Courtesy photo

Board President Joe Hearn with club members at the Steak & Steak Gala. Courtesy photo

Deidre Jones, Volusia/Flagler Youth of the Year, with Board President Joe Hearn at the Steak & Steak Gala. Courtesy photo

Chief Professional Officer Joe Sullivan poses with the Flagler County Boys & Girls Club at Rymfire Elementary School. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Ormond Beach Observer
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Emma Sanders has been compelled to serve others ever since she joined the Flagler County Boys & Girls Club 22 years ago.

Sanders was the first member of the Flagler club, joining when she was 11 years old. She had to forge her mother's signature to get in.

About the clubs

Boys & Girls Clubs have been strategically placed in eight communities in the areas of greatest need within Volusia and Flagler Counties.

We provide safe environments for youth during non-school hours, Monday through Friday, select weekends and summer. Our strategy is simple, yet sets us apart from other youth service agencies.

We believe in giving young people the opportunity to excel. We create an environment where they learn to value themselves and others. We give them a place to fit in and feel welcome.

The clubs offer young people adults who respect and listen to them, a safe environment and constructive activities that channel youthful energy into challenging pursuits.

Additionally, we engage adult family members through educational and personal development opportunities. Our traditional values and the belief that every child has the inherent ability to be great is what positions us in the forefront of youth development.

— From bgcvfc.org

"You're supposed to take the membership paper home and get your parents to fill it out," she said. "But my mother was asleep during the day and she was up at night, so I forged her signature."

The club, and unit director Hugh Brown, came along at the right time in Sanders' life. She grew up in Bunnell in a broken home. Home, itself, would change locations.

"I would live with my grandmother this year, or my aunt's house, or a family friend, or someone that was nice to me in the community. That was what home life was like," she said.

Sanders would walk to the Carver Center after school and feel safe. It was the constancy she needed. And Brown became the father figure she didn't have.

"With his personality, Mr. Brown brought more kids in, and me, being a person who talks a lot, spread the word," Sanders said. "He grew it so we would have mentors come out. There would be different classes on substance misuse and peer pressure. There was a power hour so you could get your homework done. It was recreational as well, but they also tried to give kids tools and skills."

Emma quickly became a leader. When she was a freshman in high school she became the youngest person to be named the Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia/Flagler Counties' Youth of the Year. In fact, she was too young to compete for the statewide honor with a college scholarship as the prize.

That same year, at age 15, she got her first job as a youth development worker for the club. She went on to graduate from Bethune-Cookman University with a degree in sociology. Today, she is a domestic violence outreach and prevention specialist for the Beacon Center in Ormond Beach.

LOCAL GROWTH

Joe Sullivan, has been the chief professional officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia/Flagler Counties since the first local club was founded in 1992. The organization is celebrating its 30 anniversary this year.

Sullivan has known Sanders since she became Flagler's charter member.

"There was always something special about (Sanders). I like to think we brought that out of her. She really wants to be in the business of saving lives. I'm really proud of her."

JOE SULLIVAN, Chief Professional Officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia/Flagler Counties.

"There was always something special about her. I like to think we brought that out of her," he said. "She really wants to be in the business of saving lives. I'm really proud of her."

Like Sanders, Sullivan was a member of a boys & girls club himself as a youngster. He grew up in Minneapolis in the 1960s.

"My mom was a single parent," he said. "She was a nurse who worked from 3 to 11. My brother and I were latchkey kids before there was a name for it. We spent a lot of time (with the club)."

Sullivan got a job with the organization in 1980 and he has been working for Boys & Girls Clubs of America ever since. He helped build the Volusia/Flagler organization from the ground up. He had no full-time staff for the first four years and ran the Deltona club himself.

"I've always felt more comfortable in gym shorts than a suit and tie," he said. "I'm probably a little more comfortable working with the kids than grant writing."

There are eight clubs now in Volusia and Flagler counties — Holly Hill, Daytona Beach, Deltona, DeLand, Lake Helen, New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater and Flagler. The clubs are open every day after school and all day during the summer. The eight clubs serve over 1,000 kids.

"No one's in a better position (than the Boys and Girls Clubs) helping kids and families that need it most," Sullivan said.

FULL CIRCLE?

The Flagler Club is now based at Rymfire Elementary School and has over 100 youth members. Carolyn Thompson is Flagler's unit director. Simone Gonzalez is the program specialist. Malik Murray, 15, has been a member for eight years. He was named Flagler's Youth of the Year, and got to speak at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia/Flagler Counties' Steak & Steak Gala on June 2 at the Hilton Daytona Beach. Murray said he spoke about his grandmother, who passed away in 2018.

"I always talked to her about deep stuff," he said. "The Boys and Girls Club helped me cope."

"The Boys and Girls Clubs help kids dream. You get to go places you never thought you could go."

EMMA SANDERS

Sanders would like to see a second club open in Flagler County, closer to some of the disadvantaged youth in the Bunnell area. Sullivan, would like to see that happen too.

"We want to open another club up here," he said as he checked in on the club at Rymfire on June 6. "I'd love for Emma to run it, but I don't think I can afford her."

The idea does appeal to Sanders, who spoke passionately about the Boys & Girls Clubs at the Steak & Steak Gala, the organization's annual fund-raising event that drew 700 people.

Sanders works in Volusia County, but she still lives in Bunnell and does what she can for the community, hosting trunk and treats, giving away meals at Christmas and haircuts for kids at school. She'd like to do more.

"I do want to give back here," she said. "You want to make sure we're getting those kids who are kind of left out and needing somewhere to go or a safe place to be. The Boys and Girls Clubs help kids dream. You get to go places you never thought you could go. You get invited to golf tournaments. You learn how to play tennis. The next Tiger Woods could be one of these kids who never would have gotten a chance to swing a golf club."