Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
No matter how it’s grown and changed, there have been only four directors of Baker Youth Club since it was founded in 1926.
Pete Thorn served as the part-time director from 1926 to 1963. Robert “Coach” Lichtenwalter served as the part-time director from 1963 to 1992, and then Scott Wiley served as part-time director from 1992 to 2003. Tracy Furnivall was hired in 2003, becoming BYC’s first full-time director, and is now in his 23rd year.
But no matter who served as the director, they all had one thing in common: It’s all about the kids.
This year, the BYC is celebrating its first 100 years.
“It’s pretty special, I think, for any business, but especially a not-for-profit,” Furnivall said. “If you go back to 1926 to 2026, look at what we have survived.”
There was the Great Depression, multiple wars, the Great Recession and the Covid-19 pandemic, to name a few.
“To me that speaks volumes about the foundation we had from Pete, Coach and Scott and the community that we live in. Our community is incredible. We are blessed to live in Warsaw and Kosciusko County. We have so many people that want to help,” Furnivall said.
The founder was Bramwell Baker. He was an East Coast banker who summered on Winona Lake and was part of the Rotary Club. Furnivall said Baker challenged the Rotary and the city of Warsaw, telling them that if they would match his $1,000 donation, they would start a Boys Club.
“So that’s kind of how they did it and they hired Pete Thorn, who was the Warsaw High School truant officer at the time, to be the executive director,” Furnivall said.
The club started upstairs at the old Sharp’s Hardware in downtown Warsaw. Sharp’s was where the last business before the City Hall parking lot on Center Street is now. Furnivall said he was told by Coach they had a peach basket upstairs, but the most popular thing they did back then was comic books.
From Sharp’s Hardware, the club moved to what is now the Retired Tigers apartments. Then it moved to the old freshman high school, which is now the Zimmer Biomet building on Main Street. It moved again to the Pete Thorn building at Lucerne Park on Park Avenue. The Lichtenwalter Center on West Market Street then was built, opening in 2007. After outgrowing the Lichtenwalter Center, BYC took over the former YMCA building at 1401 E. Smith St. in 2015.
Of the four directors, Furnivall said Coach probably has the “coolest” story.
“Coach was a member of the Boys Club when Pete was the director, at age 10. If Coach was able to tell the story, unfortunately he’s no longer with us, Judge Lee told Coach’s mom that Coach needed to either join the Boys Club or he was going to go to juvie. So Coach joined the club at age 10 and was a member, staff person, director and then continued to work for 77 years. So he was either a member of the club or an employee for 77 years. I think that’s pretty cool,” Furnivall stated.
Wiley was a part of the BYC, either as a member or staff, for 60 years. Furnivall said he grew up at the club as well, starting when he was about 7 or 8 years old.
“We’re a rare exception,” Furnivall stated. “But what we are seeing is a lot of second- and third-generation kids coming through, so I think that’s kind of cool.”
The biggest thing is, he said, is that it’s so different now than years ago.
“Obviously, there’s nothing the same as it was 20 years ago, let alone 50 years or 100 years ago. Back in the day, they went and read comic books and shot in the peach basket. Back when I went, you went and played basketball or you shot pool or you did the little marble game where you tried to go through the maze. That’s what it was for, that’s what you did,” he said, noting that a lot of great basketball players were created in the club back in the day.
Then things changed again.
“Granters changed, funders changed. You started that you had to provide outcomes, so we had to adjust what we were doing. So we made a little focus to education and physical fitness. So our main pillars in our mission right now are education, health and social skill building, so we’re trying to develop youth educationally, health-wise and socially. We do that through reading programs, STEM in the park, numerous different physical activities and while they’re doing all those structured activities, they’re building social skills. So on a daily basis all three of those pillars are happening,” Furnivall explained.
Currently, BYC roughly sees 90 to 100 kids in the morning and anywhere from 140 to 160 in the afternoon, depending on the time of year. In the summer, they run a summer camp where they see about 130 to 140 kids a day, he estimated.
“We basically are trying to provide a service for the working parents, or any parents, that just want their kids to be socially engaged,” he said. BYC tries to provide a safe and positive environment for the children.
The biggest challenge today, he said, is all the technology. BYC has WiFi, but they put blocks on it and try to control and monitor that the best they can.
“That’s the challenge: to get them to be socially engaged in the activities and get them off their phones. During the summer, we have mandatory times where they can’t be on it. The school year is just a different animal - kids are such a revolving door when they get here and when they leave, so it’s a little harder, but we do our best to provide structured activities for them to keep them engaged and active,” he said.
It’s common for BYC to work with other not-for-profits, like Fellowship Missions, Joe’s Kids, Big Brothers Big Sisters and others.
“We’re always working and looking to partner with any other not-for-profit any way we can because the bottom line is, in our world, it’s all about the kids,” Furnivall said. “... There’s no competition. There’s enough kids in our community that, how can we work together to benefit them?”
As for celebrating the 100th birthday, he said BYC is having its big annual BYC Derby Event on May 1 and they’ll do a little bit of celebrating at that.
“But we are going to start up a new (celebration) this year. So Aug. 15, we’re going to have the BYC Barbecue Fest, across the street at the fairgrounds. We’re going to have a big barbecue cook-off on one side, and on the other side we’re going to have a bunch of playhouses for kids, bounce houses, and just have a day where we come and have a big birthday party and celebrate 100 years,” he said.
All past and current club members, as well as anyone from the community, are invited to attend. There will be information tables set up on the BYC, and tours of the club will be offered.
August 15, a Saturday, was chosen because, according to a paper that Coach had that Furnivall found, the incorporation date was listed as Aug. 14.
“So that’s the date I’m running with as our birthday - Aug. 14, it’ll be 100 years. So that’s why on the 15th, it’s a Saturday, we’re going to have the big celebration,” he said.
The BYC Barbecue Fest will become an annual event where they have a big barbecue and celebrate the club’s birthday.
Looking into the future, Furnivall said he just wanted to leave it in a better place than what he found it.
“I want it to be financially stable. I want it to be program stable. I don’t know where more growth would come from. I think we’ve grown substantially in 23 years. I took it from a $90,000 budget to about a $800,000. So I don’t know how much more growth we have. It’s just maintaining our infrastructure, maintaining our programming and maintaining our financial stability,” he stated.
