Rick Leigh knows how it feels to be depressed and stuck in a dark place after making poor choices as a child, and that is why he founded a youth program in 2019 that is open to all children in the Wheeling area.
Focusing on physical fitness, the initiative started in Bellaire, moved to Martins Ferry, and then last year Leigh and the kids found a home at the Nelson Jordan Center in East Wheeling. Someone, though, apparently is not pleased with their presence.
“The vandalism at the Nelson Jordan Center took place on Monday,” Leigh explained. “It likely happened between 7-9 a.m. because we got there at 10 a.m. and found the place trashed. Now, there were no signs of forced entry, so my best guess is that the people who did this had a key to the place.
“They went into the center, and they destroyed the boxing area,” he continued. “They had surgical scissors that they used to cut the canvas that we had just replaced thanks to State Farm, and they cut some other things and poured all of the sand all over the boxing ring. It also appeared as if they stole four pairs of boxing gloves and sliced up three pairs, and they put nails through the ring. They did this to hurt people; that’s for sure.”
But that is not all Leigh discovered.
“They found a caulking gun somewhere and spread silicone caulking all over a lot of the equipment that the youth use, and they sliced up sets of headgear, too. Plus, they broke into some lockers and threw the contents of those lockers all over the place,” Leigh said. “Why anyone would do this to kids is beyond me. I’m stuck when I try to figure out the motive of this person or people. It just makes no sense to me.
“All I do is offer a free program for local youth of all races and creeds. We offer the program to kids on both sides of the Ohio River, and we have kids that are white, kids that are black, and we have kids who are Spanish,” he said. “I just can’t understand what the motive is here unless these people are upset that our program takes place there, and they don’t want the kids there. I am lost when it comes to the motive because I hate to see hate like that.”
Decade After Decade
Originally named the Charles Street Recreation Center, the facility was opened by the City of Wheeling in 1950 as a place for African Americans to have a place to exercise during the days of segregation. It was renamed the Nelson Jordan Center soon after the original director passed away in 1969.
The center, in need of long, overdue updates and improvements, has a gym, locker rooms for males and females, and boxing and exercise areas that have been utilized by children and adults for many years. Leigh, owner of RL Strength & Conditioning Center in Bellaire, concentrates mostly on exercises related to boxing because the routines focus on so many different muscles.
“The facility is in need of some love, and I hope to see the city do something very positive for it in the near future, but for what we do with the kids, it’s really perfect,” Leigh said. “Plus, the Nelson Jordan Center has allowed us to grow in numbers because of its history and its location. People in East Wheeling have been going there for a lot of years, and I know they want that to continue.”
Leigh, though, hopes the vandalism will not convince a child or parent not to participate but instead to join the fight for personal and collective victories over such criminal activity.
“We work very hard to try and motivate children to help themselves by learning how to take care of themselves physically, but inevitably they are learning how to take care of their mental health at the same time,” Leigh insisted. “We put our hearts and our souls into building up their character, and for someone to go in there and rip that from those children is disgusting to me.
“They didn’t hurt me. They hurt those kids,” he said. “But now there’s a bigger fire burning under me, and that means I am going to go out and get new equipment, and we’re going to pack that place with even more young people because we want the haters’ heads to spin. We’re just going to keep growing and pushing to help these kids as much as possible. All the haters did was stoke the fire, but if they come to us now and ask to be a part of what we are doing, we’ll gladly accept them.”
Lock Down
As of this afternoon, Leigh’s not heard from the mayor or from East Wheeling’s council representative, but Leigh has been assured the youth program can continue at the Nelson Jordan Center by the facility’s long-time director, Rod Lee.
Since it appears this week’s incident cannot be categorized as breaking and entering, access is an issue. And, while the municipality’s budget funds surveillance systems at a number of city-owned properties, a security system has never been in place at the Nelson Jordan Center.
Whether or not this crime will instigate necessary reform remains to be seen, but Leigh continues to be optimistic for the future of the youth program.
“We did get a hold of Rod because he supervises the building for the city of Wheeling, and of course, Rod was very sympathetic,” he reported. “He did pledge to replace the equipment the vandals destroyed, and he did say the locks will be addressed as soon as possible. We are also hoping the city will put in security cameras because if the building had those now, we would know who did this crime.
“All of the people who have supported us in the past are pretty fired up, too, and they are all stepping up to help us recover from this hate,” Leigh added. “It is a shame this had to happen because I feel this will help us grow into something bigger and better than what is has been so far. We started here at the Nelson Jordan Center with about 13, kids and we have grown to double that amount. I’d love to see it double again because of the strength we show right now.”
