SANFORD, Fla. – While Goldsboro is home to generations of families, it’s also home to the Westside Community Center, where the future generation is in good hands.
Inside the community center is the Boys and Girls Club. Travis Knight is the club’s service director. The 37-year-old grew up in Goldsboro with a single mom and several siblings.
“For me, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen a lot. I know a lot. I had two brothers actually get incarcerated. One for 15 years, the other is currently in there, but it always kept me motivated to always be better,” said Knight.
Today, Knight oversees more than 100 kids at the Boys and Girls Club and personally knows their families. The club provides them with a safe place for learning, support and growth that’s completely free and just steps from their home.
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“The first thing they do when they come here is homework, that’s the main goal,” said Knight.
Knight himself joined the Boys and Girls Club when he was in the eighth grade.
“I actually got into a fight... and (my service director) brought me to the Boys and Girls Club,” said Knight. “He said, ‘You’re gonna go over there to the group of kids, and you’re gonna help with their homework’ and it started from helping with the homework.”
Knight said he then started playing outside with other kids and realized the other kids were looking up to him.
“That was the start of just wanting to work with kids,” said Knight.
Knight would first become a track and football stand-out at Seminole High School. He earned a scholarship to attend Edward Waters University, an HBCU in Jacksonville, Florida, before returning to the Boys and Girls Club in Sanford as the Service Director in 2017.
“I do my daily pick up, so I pick up Seminole (High School), Idyllwilde (Elementary) and Sanford Middle,” said Knight, who every day drives a Boys and Girls Club bus to bring dozens of kids to the club, where they get tutoring from a reading coach, mentoring and snacks.
“I think for the kids I work with and have worked with, I was able to relate to them — not having a father and growing up with just a mom,” said Knight. “You’re trying to find that guidance of you know getting into sports and education. I ran into a lot of kids who are athletes and their biggest problem is school and that’s how I’m able to kind of get through to them because I tell them my story and from there I try to turn that lightbulb on because you can be the greatest athlete in the world, but without the education and just being well put together, spiritually, mentally and everything you won’t make it too far.”
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