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In early December of 2006, Harry Cummins and the International Boxing Club were headquartered in the Andrews River East Building in East Toledo.
The IBC used two floors of the building to train boxers and house its Learning Center. Local youths would come to the Andrews building to box, do their schoolwork and learn how to fix and build computers, among other things.
And then all of a sudden…
“They shut it down,” Cummins said. “We had 28 days to get out of there. They (landlord) said we had to be out at the end of the year.”
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| Harry E. Cummins |
Cummins, 56, took the IBC to 1717 Adams St. and started over again. He had a boxing ring, but he also built classrooms and computer rooms and continued to bring in school tutors. That was just for starters.
“A year and a half ago we expanded our program,” Cummins said. “Not all kids are going to go to college. We had one kid who would help me make repairs around the building and he was really good with his hands, so a light bulb went off in my head that said we need to start a vocational training center. We teach carpentry, electrical, and plumbing. Eric Mott, who works for the City of Toledo and is an instructor of the apprenticeship program for the City, started helping us out in June 2010.”
The IBC's programs became so successful that Cummins started looking for a larger facility. He found one. The IBC is now located at The Fun Spot, the former indoor roller skating rink located at 525 Earlwood St., in Oregon.
“It's just shy of 21,000 square feet,” Cummins said, “and it's full. We're going to have to expand it this summer. It's like an Olympic training center. I love it there.”
The IBC, a 501(c)(3) organization created in 1998, bought The Fun Spot from owner Joyce Kish, whose family built the facility in 1960.
“She is a wonderful woman,” Cummins said. “She's such a nice lady. She's really happy to see that we're moving in, because we're serving the youths in our community and that's what she wanted to continue doing.”
The Fun Spot now houses two boxing rings, 20 heavy bags and wrestling mats, and it will soon be set up with volleyball courts and softball equipment.
“We're offering girls volleyball and softball,” Cummins said. “We'll have batting cages in the winter time and we'll be playing games in the spring and summer. We've got coaches; we partnered with Toledo Public Schools' wrestling program. They cut out wrestling (due to budget cuts), so it was a perfect fit. We asked TPS, 'What can we do to help?' We shared with them that we have this wrestling program and they paired up with us.”
The IBC became involved with wrestling through USA Wrestling's nation-wide program called Beat the Streets, whose mission is to get at-risk kids off the streets. Cummins hooked up with Beat the Streets through two IBC board members, one from Ohio and one from Michigan.
“They came to me and said Beat the Streets would love to have us in their program,” Cummins said. “I said, 'we're boxing, not wrestling.' I thought about it and said, 'let's do it.' We (the IBC) push education, and none of their programs had education. They said they would like us to be the model program for Beat the Streets, which is an elite wrestling program that's only in 11 cities in the nation. We're now the 12th city in the nation.”
Since partnering with TPS, the University of Toledo, Tiffin University and Eastern Michigan University have agreed to help youths who are involved with the IBC (ages 8-18) get college scholarships, according to Cummins. IBC youths go to the UT campus every Monday and Wednesday to receive one-on-one tutoring from college honors students.
“Initially, our kids were scared to death to go on a college campus,” Cummins said. “It's a new environment, and they're used to the inner-city life. Now, our kids are so proud, like, 'I'm going over to the University of Toledo to do my homework.' ”
This spring, the IBC will begin awarding an annual scholarship to one boy and one girl.
“I'm so pleased that we're growing,” Cummins said. “We've come such a long way and I hope we continue growing. I started this (IBC) for the community and I want to keep it going. When I started this program in 1998, 75 percent of our kids were failing in school. I put the Learning Center together in 2001 or 2002, and once we moved to Adams Street that's when everything started coming together.
“We had classrooms and our computer lab where the kids built computers. The kids got to come train for free, but it was mandatory that they had to come in and do their schoolwork for one hour before training. Two of our students who were with the original program graduated from UT in December, and another one is in Italy right now doing his internship in international marketing.”
The IBC, which will begin volleyball instruction on March 1, also hosts a boxercise program for adults. Boxercise has been averaging 32 people per class.
“That has really taken off,” Cummins said. “We get women in their 50s, and they train harder than the kids. It's like a 3-1 ratio, women over men. They'll hit the boxing mitts and heavy bags. They don't get in the ring and box each other, but they love it.”
The IBC is open at The Fun Spot Monday through Friday from 4-9 p.m. To learn more about the IBC, visit www.ibctoledo.org and www.ibcprograms.org or call Cummins at 419-450-8435.
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