Wertz Club Director
Jim Randels brings youthful insight to Wertz Club
Jim Randels is a kid at heart. As a student at Michigan State University in the 1990s, he wanted to become a lawyer. He graduated in 1993 with a degree in pre-law and public policy. Planning to take a year off before going to law school, he took a job as an aquatics professional at the Bloomer Club in Detroit. He was having so much fun that realized that he had found his true calling - working with kids. He has been with Boys & Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan ever since.
After working in aquatics and the arts for seven years, he began to split his time between the Bloomer Club and the Lake Orion Club (later known as the Orion/Oxford Club) in Orion, Mich. When B&GCSM was considering adding the Troy Club to its organization, Jim was sent there to work and stayed for five years. When the merger did not occur, he was assigned to the Guest Club in Dearborn. (The Guest Club later merged into the NFL-YET Boys & Girls Club at the Dick and Sandy Dauch Campus in Detroit.) In 2006, Jim became director of the Holden Club.
Seventeen years after first joining B&GCSM, Jim is working with a second generation of kids. The Holden Club is in one of Detroit's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Jim and his staff are committed to helping the kids build good character traits that will help them do well in school, be active in the Club's programs and activities, and stay off the streets.
In 2010, the Holden Club opened the STARS program (Strategically Targeting At Risk Students) for middle school kids. A new room was created from a former woodworking shop and art room, with a section for computers, reading and a bigger space for up to 300 new members. The program was funded by grants from The Kresge Foundation and The Skillman Foundation.
In June of 2011, Jim was named the Wertz Club Director in Shelby Township, MI.
Jim and his fellow Club directors often find themselves becoming extended family members to kids from the Club, continuing to mentor and guide them as they enter college and start careers.
"Having worked at the Clubs for so long, I've seen kids who've gone to college and are now working for the Boys & Girls Clubs," he said. Some alumni stay in touch with their home Clubs and ask about the mentors - like Jim - who helped them through tough times.
"When kids come back after high school or college, that's the biggest reward," Jim noted. "It shows how well the Clubs' programs work. Kids come back and say 'thank you.' They even admit that 'you suspended me or put me in time out and I was mad at you then but you taught me a valuable lesson.'"
Those lessons continue today. One boy told an interviewer from a college campus, "I don't know what I would do without the Club."
Jim and his wife Kristin have two children: Julia, and Max. Last summer, both of his children spent at least one day a week at the Club.
