On a warm spring night, the sound of hip-hop music flows softly from the John A. Valenzuela Youth Center in South Tucson. Kids from ages 10 to 18 filter out of the darkness and enter the brightly-decorated room that will act as their dance floor for the evening.
“We do a lot of dancing,” says director Gloria Hamelitz with a smile. “For the kids, it’s a wonderful self-esteem booster. It gives them a chance to take ownership of something.”
In addition to their dance activities, the John A. Valenzuela Youth Center, 1550 S. Sixth Ave., provides the community’s kids and teens, ages 5-18, with services to help them avoid drugs, alcohol and gangs and get involved in community-outreach activities.
After-school programs offered by the center include everything from access to GED courses to a city-wide sports league.
Thanks to a collaboration with several other South Tucson youth service organizations, Hamelitz says the sports league has become one of the biggest benefits for South Tucson kids.
“What we were finding was that a lot of our kids wanted to be in these different [sports] leagues and based on the economics of our neighborhood, a lot of our families couldn’t afford it,” she says. “So we came together and now we have an organized sports league. We have shirts, rules and seasons.”
As Hamelitz moves between the center’s brightly-lit rooms, decorated with posters, pictures and children’s artwork, she speaks of their achievements.
“If we get a grant to do X, Y and Z, well, we try to do A to Z,” she says. “We really have this legacy to fulfill. We have a family that we feel we’re responsible to. We have a community that really wanted us to be here. So we always have that need to do more.”
Named for police officer John Valenzuela, Hamelitz says his heroic story is a big part of what keeps the center moving forward.
Valenzuela was an active member of the South Tucson community and focused his efforts on working with children. While serving a search warrant in May 1993, he was killed when a man opened fire and fatally shot the officer.
Hamelitz says Valenzuela’s dedication to the people in the area pushed them to take action for the fallen hero.
“Something really beautiful happened after all this tragedy. We now have a youth center that kind of fulfills his goals and mission in life, which is really to help young children,” Hamelitz says.
In addition to an annual May memorial service, Valenzuela’s legacy lives on in the center where shiny plaques and glass-cased mementos tell his story.
“We want our kids to know who he was and we never want this to be just a place where his name is just on the building,” Hamelitz says, motioning to Valenzuela’s memorial. “But, what I really like about this is that he really reflects our community. He looks like our kids from the neighborhood. He’s not somebody like Michael Jordan who is not from here, who they don’t look like, who they’re never going to have any kind of connection with. For us to have this allows our kids to see a real role model.”
One of the teens influenced by Valenzuela’s story is 17-year-old Juan Quevedo, who moved to Tucson four years ago and later joined the center’s after-school Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) teen program.
“The reason I’m Y2Y is because I grew up in Mexico and that’s a really hard place to live. [My] whole family used to sell dope so that they could get money for their kids. When my mom didn’t have money for my lunch, I used to clean shoes, wash windshields,” Quevedo says. “Where I’m at now, I just want to keep on going. I look back on that and it keeps me motivated.”
Even with all of the center’s success stories like Quevedo, more than 250 kids pass through the center each year that the center is unable to provide for, Hamelitz says.
“This community still has a really big problem with drugs, gangs, poverty and a high dropout rate,” she says. “We know they’re still huge gaps in our community and we’re only meeting a really small fraction of the kids.
She says they have to turn kids away simply because there is not enough physical space or adult supervision available.
“We know that we’ve helped save a lot of our kids, but it’s always the ones we’ve lost who are in the back of my mind.”
Undeterred by the challengers, Hamelitz remains positive about the future of the John A. Valenzuela Youth Center and the children there.
“We’re going to base our success off the success of our kids,” she says. “We just want to see our kids succeed.”
For more information on this year’s memorial for Officer Valenzuela, call 792-9251.
On a warm spring night, the sound of hip-hop music flows softly from the John A. Valenzuela Youth Center in South Tucson. Kids from ages 10 to 18 filter out of the darkness and enter the brightly-decorated room that will act as their dance floor for the evening.
“We do a lot of dancing,” says director Gloria Hamelitz with a smile. “For the kids, it’s a wonderful self-esteem booster. It gives them a chance to take ownership of something.”
In addition to their dance activities, the John A. Valenzuela Youth Center, 1550 S. Sixth Ave., provides the community’s kids and teens, ages 5-18, with services to help them avoid drugs, alcohol and gangs and get involved in community-outreach activities.
After-school programs offered by the center include everything from access to GED courses to a city-wide sports league. Thanks to a collaboration with several other South Tucson youth service organizations, Hamelitz says the sports league has become one of the biggest benefits for South Tucson kids.
“What we were finding was that a lot of our kids wanted to be in these different [sports] leagues and based on the economics of our neighborhood, a lot of our families couldn’t afford it,” she says. “So we came together and now we have an organized sports league. We have shirts, rules and seasons.”
As Hamelitz moves between the center’s brightly-lit rooms, decorated with posters, pictures and children’s artwork, she speaks of their achievements.
“If we get a grant to do X, Y and Z, well, we try to do A to Z,” she says. “We really have this legacy to fulfill. We have a family that we feel we’re responsible to. We have a community that really wanted us to be here. So we always have that need to do more.”
Named for police officer John Valenzuela, Hamelitz says his heroic story is a big part of what keeps the center moving forward.
Valenzuela was an active member of the South Tucson community and focused his efforts on working with children. While serving a search warrant in May 1993, he was killed when a man opened fire and fatally shot the officer. Hamelitz says Valenzuela’s dedication to the people in the area pushed them to take action for the fallen hero.
“Something really beautiful happened after all this tragedy. We now have a youth center that kind of fulfills his goals and mission in life, which is really to help young children,” Hamelitz says.
In addition to an annual May memorial service, Valenzuela’s legacy lives on in the center where shiny plaques and glass-cased mementos tell his story.
“We want our kids to know who he was and we never want this to be just a place where his name is just on the building,” Hamelitz says, motioning to Valenzuela’s memorial.
“But, what I really like about this is that he really reflects our community. He looks like our kids from the neighborhood. He’s not somebody like Michael Jordan who is not from here, who they don’t look like, who they’re never going to have any kind of connection with. For us to have this allows our kids to see a real role model.”
One of the teens influenced by Valenzuela’s story is 17-year-old Juan Quevedo, who moved to Tucson four years ago and later joined the center’s after-school Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) teen program.
“The reason I’m Y2Y is because I grew up in Mexico and that’s a really hard place to live. [My] whole family used to sell dope so that they could get money for their kids. When my mom didn’t have money for my lunch, I used to clean shoes, wash windshields,” Quevedo says. “Where I’m at now, I just want to keep on going. I look back on that and it keeps me motivated.”
Even with all of the center’s success stories like Quevedo, more than 250 kids pass through the center each year that the center is unable to provide for, Hamelitz says.
“This community still has a really big problem with drugs, gangs, poverty and a high dropout rate,” she says. “We know they’re still huge gaps in our community and we’re only meeting a really small fraction of the kids.
She says they have to turn kids away simply because there is not enough physical space or adult supervision available.
“We know that we’ve helped save a lot of our kids, but it’s always the ones we’ve lost who are in the back of my mind.”
Undeterred by the challengers, Hamelitz remains positive about the future of the John A. Valenzuela Youth Center and the children there.
“We’re going to base our success off the success of our kids,” she says. “We just want to see our kids succeed.”
For more information on this year’s memorial for Officer Valenzuela, call 792-9251.
