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CHAMPAIGN — New to the states last summer by way of the Caribbean, Jonathan Telesford was curious to find out how he’d fit in among kids his age in his new home city.
First stop: the Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club, where before long he made friends he now considers his second family — one he tries to visit almost every day once school lets out at Centennial.
“I was new to the area, so I just needed a place to get me accustomed to how the people act and the different normal things that would be going on,” said Telesford, a high school freshman.
“It gave me somewhat of a culture shock in terms of how people express themselves, how open they are and how generally kinder they are.”
On Thursday evening, Telesford will be honored as the club’s Youth of the Year during the launch of its new fundraiser event, “Gals for Great Futures,” at Carmon’s in Champaign.
Club CEO Amy Brown said the night serves to replace and revamp its previous “Steak N’ Burger Dinner” fundraiser and will feature a fashion show, live auction and speech from Telesford, who was selected alongside other teen club members to model outfits on the runway.
“Jonathan joins in on every project, his academia is strong and he also is one of our featured peer mediators,” Brown said. “He’s always willing to help out, he volunteers with anything that we have going on here.
“Best said, he’s truly a leader.”
Since becoming a regular at the afterschool center, Telesford said he’s become involved in a wide range of activities.
He’s dabbled in designing clothes through sewing club, enjoyed drawing with graphite in art club, embraced his competitive side in gaming club and played with remote-controlled cars in STEM club.
His favorite style of fashion involves intricate details, and he’s almost finished creating his own satchel. And though it’s not usually his main medium, he was inspired to create a geometric painting of different shades of purple because of his love for the color.
Telesford was surprised to learn that he’d been chosen for the honor, partly because he didn’t even know the organization selected a Youth of the Year.
He was still working on his speech Tuesday, but he said he planned to make it about why he first joined the club and his gratitude for the opportunities it’s provided to “put myself out there.”
For example, while 35 club members will be modeling clothes from seven local boutiques on Thursday, Telesford and five other teens were awarded $250 each to create their own outfits for the runway.
“I’m happy because I’m kind of putting myself out there and facing one of my big fears, which is a large crowd,” he said. “So it helps me to be able to handle, to speak and walk and allow people to look at me while I’m in a large crowd, as one of the main subjects of the people.”
Money raised through Thursday’s fundraiser will go toward supporting operations at the club’s teen center and Martens Center, which serves elementary-aged children. Brown estimated that 35 kids come to the teen center and 90 come to the Martens Center every night.
The two locations provide access to computer labs, gymnasiums, games, hygiene products and homework help to students who otherwise don’t have activities to take part in after school, Brown said. The centers also supply a hot meal every night.
Since the steak dinner hadn’t been held in person since before the pandemic, and the club’s golf-focused fundraiser typically drew male participants, Brown said the organization wanted to create the Gals for Great Futures event to bring together women to raise money for the kids.
Male board members and other male volunteers will be gussied up in suits and serving as waiters for the event, which will also feature an address on mental health from Karen Simms, local founder of the C-U Trauma & Resilience Initiative, and a video presentation from one of the club’s original youth members, Joe Stovall.
The Youth of the Year speech will be made in honor of Will Patterson, Don Moyer’s chief teen officer who died on April 2 and was memorialized Sunday in a celebration of life at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
The fundraiser will ultimately bring together the community — what one teen said is the reason he comes to the club whenever he can.
“I would say it’s like a family to me, but also a professional family,” Telesford said. “They would help me with homework, some questions I might not know; we have our little jokes, we play different games. This is where I met most of my friends.”
