KOSCIUSKO — David Condon spoke about the famous Boys & Girls Club members during the sixth annual C.A.R.E. event at the Oprah Winfrey Boys & Girls Club in Kosciusko September 20.

Condon, the founder of  Diversified Nonprofit Services, also spoke of how Gen. Colin Powell came to work with the organization.

But, it was Condon’s own personal experience with the Boys & Girls Club that personified the club’s mission – “To enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens.”

Condon said he was held back in school and he was classified as mentally retarded.

He was made fun of and called names but he was bigger than everyone else so when someone made fun of him, he beat them up.

One day on the playground, Condon hit another child with a baseball bat sending him to the hospital.

Condon was arrested and taken before a judge at 11 years old.

He had the option – reform school or the Boys & Girls Club. He chose the latter.

He didn’t want to be there. He wasn’t good at sports. He wasn’t good at academics.  

Charlie Gardner, the executive director at the club, believed that every kid was good at something, Condon said.

Gardner made him a deal – Everyday Condon would come to the club, do his homework and  he would go into the basement and practice his trumpet. He didn’t have to play with the other kids.

He later became the first and youngest child to make a professional music organization. At 13, he performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Gardner came to the realization that Condon was not retarded but lazy.

“He just needed a boot in the rear end,” Condon said of himself.

A “D” student, Condon said his junior year he thought he might like to go to college and was laughed at by his guidance counselor.

He took the PSATs and he made 1575 out of 1600.

Condon excelled in college and went back to the school system to work.

At 23, he became assistant superintendent and his first day on the job, he pulled his school record and that’s when he learned he had been classified as mentally retarded.

“That boy was me, a long time ago,” Condon said. “That’s why I do 50-60 of these speaking pro-bono a year.”

“Every time I get up and talk, it’s a ‘Thank You’ note to Charlie Gardner. It’s a ‘Thank You’ note to Judge O’Sullivan. It’s a ‘Thank You’ note to my mother and father,” he said. “You have to look at the Boys & Girls Club as something greater than helping a child.

You’re helping that child become a positive adult. But eventually, you have to bring into the equation, all the people that they have helped when they grew up.”

 “What really is a Boys & Girls Club?,” he posed to the crowd of hundreds.

“It’s a present. It’s a present – we give children every day,” he said. “The Christmas holidays were always special.  You couldn’t wait to get up on Christmas morning. That’s what the Boys & Girls Club is.”

“It’s like tearing open a present and what’s going on in that magical place today,” Condon said. “Some days it’s the gift of feeling safe. Some days, the gift of friendship. Some days, the gift of learning.”

He asked the crowd “What would the world be like without the Boys & Girls Club?”

If 152 years ago, the club hadn’t been founded, then millions of children would not have been helped, he said.

Famous entertainers, politicians and sports figures like Denzel Washington, Jennifer Lopez, Brad Pitt, Bill Clinton, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Bill Cosby, Neil Diamond and Michael Jordan would have never reached their full potential.

And, while most club members do not reach celebrity status,  most do stay in their community and serve their community by having productive and well-rounded lives, he said.

Condon, who visits hundreds of Boys & Girls Clubs each year, said Gen. Colin Powell was being sought for a speaking engagement at a club in West Palm Beach, Fla.   

“He came to the club and as he walked around the building and his face transformed,” Condon said. “He went from not wanting to be there to a great smile on his face.”

“At the end of the tour we took him to a gym, we told the kids – ‘Under no circumstances can you ask him questions. He’s going to say a few words.’ ”

Condon said Powell talked about his life and the support of family as he went through ROTC and other military training.

Powell told the crowd he could do this because he had a loving mother and father.

And a 10-year-old boy puts up his hand to ask a question.

“The general said, ‘Son, you have a question?’ ”

The boy replied: “Where do you think you think you would be today if your mother and father didn’t care where you lived or died?”

“You could hear a pin drop in that gymnasium,” Condon said.

The boy said, “You are a smart man. You are in the Army. It’s not that hard a question.”

The general said “I don’t know where I’d be.”

The boy said “If it weren’t for the boys and girls club, nobody would care if I was alive or dead.”

It was that experience that made Powell become a board member of the Boys & Girls Club of America.

For more information on the OWB&G Club, call 289-4252.