Mugging for the camera recently in the Bryant Boys & Girls Club, Shane Broadway tilted his fedora while wife Debbie fingered several long strings of pearls. The couple, attired in their best Gatsby-esque finery, are serving as honorary co-chairmen for the fourth annual Starlight Gala, A Gatsby Affair, which benefits the club.
The Boys & Girls Club is near and dear to Shane Broadway's heart. In fact, when he was newly married in 1996 and in his first race for the Arkansas House, the establishment of a club in Bryant was one of his campaign issues. At the time, the Saline County Boys & Girls Club existed in Benton but accepted students only from Benton. A similar club, he felt, was needed in Bryant.
A committee was formed through the Bryant Chamber of Commerce, and ideas were brought together, he says, "from all interested parties -- the city, the school district, parents and teachers, local businesses."
Richard Abernathy, who was the superintendent of the Bryant School District at the time, agreed in 2004 to allow the fledgling organization to use the gym at the Bryant Middle School for an after-school program. (Abernathy is now the executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators.)
The club, which enrolls students in kindergarten through eighth grade, began with 125. (The after-school program now numbers 750 students, which is more than 10 percent of the same-grade enrollment in the Bryant Public School District.)
In 2006, Charles and Norma Bishop, local civic leaders, sold land for Bishop Park to the city at a charitable price. Eventually, Bishop Park would boast ballparks, soccer fields, walking paths, a competition-size swimming pool, three gyms and a workout center. In 2011, the Bryant Boys & Girls Club moved into a two-story building connected to the park's facilities. Today, the Bryant Senior Adult Center also is housed in the complex.
BROADWAY CONTRIBUTIONS
"Debbie and Shane have been here since the beginning. They were part of the vision, and Shane was instrumental in the Legislature in getting appropriations for the club," says Suzanne Passmore, executive director of the club. "These two give from their hearts. They give of their time, talent and service."
For the Broadways, it is very personal.
Shane Broadway was a freshman at Arkansas State University when one of his older brothers was diagnosed with leukemia. He was astounded at how the city of Bryant rallied around his family. "They even held fundraisers to help defray the cost of my brother's medical treatments. At my age, I wondered how you ever pay that back. My father said, 'You find a way to give back.' I have tried to do that in my public service."
Debbie Broadway learned in her 20s that she had multiple sclerosis (a degenerative disease of the nervous system) and was recently diagnosed with lupus (an autoimmune disease). Since the Broadways do not have children, she says, the kids at the Boys & Girls Club have become "our children."
Shane Broadway nods, adding, "Yes, they and Brownie, our beagle."
THE REASON TO START
"The idea was to get the kids off the street after school and into a safe environment and offer educational programming that was more than just sitting around playing video games," he says.
Passmore adds that the kids "need to come in and leave their 'baggage' at the door. Kids need to be kids, to learn to play, to get positive reinforcement."
At the Boys & Girls Club, students find myriad activities: sports, a computer center, visual and performing arts, creative writing and a Homework Help Room. Field trips, including visits to museums and Razorbacks games, are planned throughout the year. A great effort is made to give the students exposure to a lot of things they might not know otherwise.
Debbie Broadway will begin a three-year term on the club's board of directors on New Year's Day. One program she wants to institute is a course called White Gloves and Party Manners.
"These kids need to know how to use a knife and fork, and say 'Yes, sir' and 'No, sir,'" she says. "One day, they'll be trying to find a job, and good manners will help them succeed."
The club's summer program enrollment, which also runs about 750, is open to all students in Saline County. A number of club alumni who grew up in the program and have gone off to college will return in the summertime to work at the club. Passmore says, "These kids turn out to be great mentors. They can relate to the current members."
PARTY TIME
For the fourth year, the premier sponsor of the Starlight Gala is Landers of Saline County. The event will be held at the new Benton Event Center at 7 p.m. on New Year's Eve. Chef Bonner Cameron of Bistro Catering of Bryant will prepare a buffet dinner at stations around the ballroom, including seafood appetizers, carving boards, antipasto and a dessert bar. The band will be Sister, Sister.
Shane Broadway confesses that he and Debbie usually stay home or with a small group of friends on New Year's Eve, but for the Bryant Boys & Girls Club, he'll make merry. Meanwhile, Debbie Broadway recalled "reading The Great Gatsby in high school, and I romanticized the heck out of that book!"
And, "I mean, for $75 per person, you get dinner, drinks, dancing and champagne. You help the kids of Bryant. And it's tax-deductible. It's an event you don't want to have to say you missed!"
For more information on the Starlight Gala, call (501) 231-5333 or visit bryantbgc.org.
High Profile on 12/28/2014