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City People

Miss Bertha making a difference to kids

The life of an after-school program director revolves around being a good mentor and a role model for "her babies."

By AMY SCHERZER
Published May 19, 2006

YBOR CITY - For 30 years, Bertha Gary has led hundreds of children at the Boys & Girls Club of Ybor City. She's turned down every offer of advancement to continue as director of the after-school program and summer camp. Nothing and no one could budge her.

Until now. On Thursday, the 50-year-old clubhouse at 2806 N 15th St. will close for a major renovation complete with new computer rooms, a gymnasium and offices.

Wouldn't now be the time to retire, Miss Bertha?

Not yet, says Gary, 62. Not while she still can make an impact on "my babies."

"These kids don't have what we had, when all the neighborhood was involved with a child," she said. "Basically, these are children raising children."

Her steady presence has been invaluable to generations of Ybor youth.

"She's been a patient and loving mentor and role model for three decades," said Paddy Moses, development director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay.

Every afternoon, as the first yellow bus approaches, Gary takes her position at the gym door, clipboard in hand. She greets every child by name, more than 100 of them between the ages 5 to 13. Double that head count in the summer.

Half of them will follow her to the Wilbur Davis Boys & Girls Club in nearby Belmont Heights. The other half will move to the Nick Capitano club. Her staff of nine, including longtime cook Eartha Hills, will be divided between the clubs during the yearlong renovation.

Born in rural Byromville, Ga., the sixth of nine children, Gary thought she'd grow up to be a teacher. By age 7, she took charge of her younger siblings and other children while the adults picked cotton.

"I always had a group following me," she said.

In 1957, her family moved to Tampa, where her father worked in construction. She married Walter Gary in 1960 and had their first child, Felicia, at 17. After graduating from the old Middleton High in 1961, she had three more children: Belinda, Walter and Sherry.

In July, the Garys, who have lived in East Tampa since 1967, will celebrate their 46th anniversary.

The club accepted boys only when Gary began working as day care coordinator in 1976. It added girls in 1984.

"What we thought was a problem child then would be an angel today," Gary said.

Behavior patterns gradually changed, she recalls, just like the kids' clothing choices, musical tastes and manners.

"They're mouthy," she said. "With attitudes."

Her discipline usually starts with time out or work detail, Gary said. The kids understand her expectations.

"Sometimes she be mean, and sometimes she be nice," 6-year-old Joy Jones said.

"If you be bad, you have to sit under the counter," 8-year-old Maurice Baon said.

The rules have tightened for staff, too.

"Now you have to be careful how you hug a child," Gary said. Even pulling a loose tooth, for example, is taboo.

But Gary doesn't hesitate to get involved when she sees a lack of parenting. She delivers messages from teachers, too, and makes copies of every school report card to monitor improvement.

"I'm not afraid to talk to them," she said. "We spend more time with their kids than they do."

She knows she's made a difference when the kids invite her to graduations and weddings. They often come back to visit, bringing wives, girlfriends and babies.

Many former students send their kids to the club. One parent, Willie L. Jackson, came to work for Gary as athletic specialist/bus driver.

"She's straightforward and straight up. I have a lot of respect for her," said Jackson, known as Coach Nine because he's missing a finger. He sent his three children to the Ybor club and now has a grandchild enrolled.

In 2000, Gary heard that Derrick Brooks, the Tampa Bay Buccaneer linebacker, wanted to adopt her club. She figured they would get some football tickets.

Certainly she never expected she would chaperone the kids to Africa twice and to New York, Chicago and Tallahassee.

Since then, when the kids complain, she reminds them of the African children they met with no shoes. She mentions the preschool they visited for children with AIDS.

Count your blessings, she tells them.

High on that list: Miss Bertha.

Amy Scherzer can be reached at www.sptimes.com or 226-3332.

[Last modified May 18, 2006, 12:22:32]