#147: Boys & Girls Clubs President's Lessons of Service, Faith, Race Relations, Baseball

As we close out Black History Month soon, my guest is an African-American man who has worked for Boys and Girls Clubs for nearly 28 years, being President and CEO of the non-profit in Columbus GA for more than a decade now. He's got a lot to say about faith and fitness in this episode of "Run The Race," which we hope you subscribe to! (3:01) Rodney Close describes what the Boys and Girls Clubs does, such an important organization especially with youth violence on the rise, including a recent crime in our city with 9 children shot at a gas station. Like many of the kids that comes through the clubs he leads, Rodney had a single mom, but talks about the community support he got - from people that did not look like him. We dive into that more, This leader also discusses (12:20) how Christian faith plays a role in mentoring and race relations. He has a belief about things being meant to be or not, trusting God to guide him to do the right thing and to help kids with direction. Rodney shares a story about how the Lord stepped in when he was hungry as a student and baseball player at the University of Georgia. Growing up, he also saw blacks and whites getting along, but (21:33) is concerned now about the obstacles for African-Americans in baseball, for which he was briefly drafted by MLB, and a sport his 15-year-old son now plays. His experiences in sports and having a single parent gives him tools as a mentor, one that's faced trials on the road to success. (28:31) Rodney and his wife also get up at 4:30am to get in a workout, but why that early? He explains that and an injury when he raced his son. Rodney also completed a full Ironman in KY, talks about that experience and the training. (37:00) We close our chat talking about his life of serving others, the importance of being genuine and being guided by God. And Rodney still has hope for the future. He'll tell you why. I close this episode out, like we always do, in prayer. Thanks for listening to the #RunTheRace podcast! Also, write a quick review about it, on Apple podcasts. For more info and all past episodes, go to www.wtvm.com/podcast/.