After 'horrible tragedy,' Appleton Boys & Girls Club became a safe place for kids for 25 years
APPLETON – Although he studied theology and attended seminary school, Greg Lemke-Rochon is not someone who looks for signs from the universe, telling him if he's doing the right thing.
But Lemke-Rochon said he can't forget a moment from the summer of 1998 that certainly felt like one.
It was when the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Fox Valley moved into its original space on Locust Street in downtown Appleton. Lemke-Rochon arrived around 5:30 a.m. to get ready for the big day. As he pulled up, Lemke-Rochon said he noticed two children, probably about 5 and 7 years old, playing alone on the nearby railroad tracks, no adult in sight.
A quarter of a century later, the club's mission remains the same, he said: Provide a safe and supportive place for all kids to grow and thrive — emphasis on the word "all."
Today, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Fox Valley has served more than 100,000 children across 15 locations. With the organization's 25th anniversary celebration on Friday, "we just want to say thank you," Lemke-Rochon said, to the community and all the people who made it possible.
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Club created a safe place for kids after a 'horrible tragedy'
Lemke-Rochon has been with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Fox Valley since the beginning — before the beginning, actually.
While the original Appleton club opened its doors in August 1998, Lemke-Rochon was already working for the club's predecessor, Youth Services of the Fox Valley Region, when a "horrible tragedy" happened.
On May 11, 1995, an Outagamie County parks employee found three teenage boys — Danny Gregurich, Mitch Weller and Shane Gray — who died of gunshot wounds in a station wagon at Plamann Park in Grand Chute. The next day, the body of a fourth teen, Germaine Gray, who had been burned, stabbed and bludgeoned days earlier, was found at the bottom of a farm silo outside Antigo.
Authorities determined that Gregurich, Weller and Gray — all members of an Appleton gang named D-Mac Crew —killed themselves "because they feared being arrested and going to prison for their involvement" in killing Gray, The Post-Crescent reported in 2020.
The deaths sent "sent shockwaves throughout the Fox Valley and beyond," according to the article. It was "a seminal moment" not only for Lemke-Rochon's organization, he said, but also for the community.
Not long after, the Appleton mayor formed a task force. At one of the very first meetings, Lemke-Rochon said, someone suggested creating a a safe place for kids to help address the problem.
"Some folks in the community saw the need, but many, many didn't, and didn't think that this community needed a Boys & Girls Club," Lemke-Rochon said. "Youth centers had been tried time and time again in the downtown Appleton area, in particular, and they had all failed or not lasted long.”
Still, Lemke-Rochon and others "were determined," he said.
Appleton's Boys & Girls Club opened in August 1998 in a small corner of vacant industrial building where Bassett Mechanical used to be. By the next summer, the club averaged 196 kids per day at the location, Lemke-Rochon said.
“Now, in retrospect, that probably wasn’t a smart thing to do,” he laughed, “because 196 kids in 3,000 square feet of space, you couldn't turn around without stepping on somebody's toes. It was just crazy, but it was crazy fun. The kids loved it.”
That was a really important milestone, Lemke-Rochon said, because it showed the community that the need and the interest were there.
Members' memories include a Britney Spears song performed at a talent show, learning how to be 'a good sport'
When Taylor Berken was 8 years old, her friend introduced her to the Appleton Boys & Girls Club through a guest pass. Berken quickly fell in love, she said, and became a member herself.
One Halloween, Berken said, the club created a haunted house, complete with a station where kids dipped their hands in a "mystery bowl" and guessed what was in the bowl.
“To this day, I still don’t know what I dipped my hands into, but I have a hunch it was … spaghetti and meatballs because that’s what my hand smelled like for a solid day. I could not get the smell off my hands,” Berken chuckled.
Berken's favorite memory, though, is from the 2001 talent show. She and Shayna Layoff, her best friend at the time, spent hours practicing before performing a choreographed dance to "(You Drive Me) Crazy" by Britney Spears on stage.
“It really felt like the real deal with the lights going. We had a huge crowd. They even had an MC to announce us," she said.
The friends won third place and a gift card to McDonald’s, Berken said, where their parents took them after “to celebrate our victory.”
Now an adult, Berken carries on her love for the club by working as the organization's director of behavioral support services. She's grateful, she said, to provide more children memories and opportunities like her own.
One of those kids is 7-year-old Maximus Baewer, who's finishing up his first summer of activities at the Menasha club. When his mom, Katie Baewer, brings him to the facility, the woman at the front desk exclaims, “Good morning, Maximus!"
"Everybody knows his name, and they’re just the kindest people there,” Katie Baewer said.
Recently, Maximus lost a game of "carpet ball" with another child, but told the kid, "Hey, good game." An employee notified his mom about the interaction, and how Maximus had worked on being "a good sport" all summer. Baewer was touched, she said, to hear the employee took the time to teach her son this.
“This isn’t just a place where my kid goes for daycare," Katie Baewer said. "This is something so much more."
Club has been a leader, advocate for kids for 25 years
Over 25 years, the organization's footprint has grown. The Appleton club's original space is part of its now larger facility along South Badger Avenue. In 2015, the Menasha club opened, and an expansion was finished five years later. The organization is also involved with schools in Appleton, Kiel, New Holstein and Little Chute.
"We see ourselves, and with all humility," Lemke-Rochon said, "as being a significant leader in the community" and an advocate for all children, including those from marginalized communities who might otherwise be overlooked.
People who drive by the Appleton club might not realize everything that happens inside, he said. The organization provides:
a Home Base program to help kids struggling with housing insecurities.
a bereavement center for children dealing with grief.
an educational initiative called STAR to support Black scholars in the Fox Cities.
the TRAC program to promote school attendance and academic engagement.
thousands of meals for children, and much more.
Club will continue to serve even more kids in the Fox Valley
Going forward, the club is always looking at how it can get better and serve more kids, Lemke-Rochon said. There's also "a really good chance," he said, "that there will be more locations in our future."
Lemke-Rochon continues to stay along for the ride, he said, because “I still get excited." One of the barometers he uses to decide whether the club is still "the right place" for him, he said, is the annual "Youth of the Year" competition.
"The year that I go to the 'Youth of the Year' event, and go into the judges room and hear the kids present their speeches and answer the judges' questions, that I don't cry will be the first time it's ever happened," he said. “... I never cease to get inspired by our kids.”
Lemke-Rochon is inspired almost as much by the club's team and staff, made up of “some of this community’s best, most committed, dedicated people," he said.
As for how the club has succeeded for 25 years? Lemke-Rochon thinks it's a mixture of the organization's "commitment to doing whatever it takes and not giving up," along with the dedicated support from the community.
"If this community understands the why," he said, "they’ll always show up."
How to join the celebration
The celebration will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 18 at the Boys & Girls Club of Appleton, 160 S. Badger Ave. Festivities include mini golf, a mural unveiling, an ice cream truck, face painting, a dunk tank and more.
People are encouraged, but not required, to RSVP. More details are available at bgclubfoxvalley.org/25years/.
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Reach Becky Jacobs at bjacobs@gannett.com or 920-993-7117. Follow her on Twitter at @ruthyjacobs.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Boys & Girls Clubs of the Fox Valley celebrates 25 years in Appleton
