Harvest Youth Club Led By Melvin Allen Is Home Away From Home
HARVEST- Tucked away among the houses and farmland of the small, but growing community of Harvest is a home away from home for many of the area’s youth yearning for education, guidance and caring from others.
Founded in 2000, the Harvest Youth Club (HYC) is more than an after school and summer program headquarters for children ages 5-13. The core goal of the HYC is to provide programs and services designed to build character and strengthen life skills.
“We develop youth and strengthen the next generations of families as our goal is to build each child a strong foundation that will encourage each member to reach their fullest potential spiritually, academically and socially,” said Melvin Allen, director of the HYC since 2008.
Allen leads a staff of four to 10, depending on the season, and numerous volunteers in supplying more than just fun and games for the estimated 200 youth who call the HYC a part-time home.
For Allen, who grew up in the immediate area not far from the current HYC location, he is something of a hero in Harvest folklore and the town’s history. He attended the old Sparkman High, which became Sparkman Middle School in 1997 upon the building of a new Sparkman High School, where he was an All-State and Madison County Most Valuable Player for the school’s basketball program. Upon graduation, he spent one year at UAH in Huntsville before he transferred to Jacksonville State University as he led the Gamecocks in assists for three consecutive years, to back-to-back Gulf South Conference Championships in 1984 and 1985 and a NCAA Div. II National Championship in 1985.
In the 1985 title game versus South Dakota State, Allen scored 20 points including six in the final two minutes to give Jacksonville State a 74-73 victory and a national title.
For most of his life Allen was all about basketball and didn’t give his future a lot of thought…until the beginning of his junior year at Jacksonville State.
“I hadn’t given it much thought up to that time, but I decided I wanted to work with youth be it a coach and teacher,” said Allen. “I considered social services. I thought wouldn’t it be a powerful tool to use my athletic experience and use that in the area of helping young people.”
In 1989 Allen first saw the Huntsville Boys Club and its many underprivileged children. “I knew right then that’s where I needed to be,” said Allen. “I knew this would be my dream job.”
In 1998, Allen returned to the same Boys Club where he worked for a decade and also assisted at the Harvest Boys and Girls Club from 2004 to 2008. It was in 2008 he took over the HYC as its known today and leads the club’s efforts of providing a safe, fun and structured environment. Allen said the HYC is a religious/faith based non-profit and receives no federal funding. Only donations from individuals, businesses and civic groups or churches provide what is needed to make the HYC home for so many.
“We have become part of several churches’ missions and we’re great partners with them,” added Allen. “Youths, adults and families from those churches can come here and volunteer.”
As any local basketball history buff will tell you, Allen is also known for the “shot heard ‘round Calhoun County.” The sharp-shooting Allen hit a 40-foot buzzer-beater to give his Gamecocks a come-from-behind win in the NCAA Regionals propelling the squad to the National Championships.
Today, Allen, who turns 55 in August, still walks the grounds he grew up on with fame among his personal history and extending his gratitude to many like former coaches Bob Campbell and Stanley Stafford, as well as, all the others who inspired him to help others, just as they did him. Allen said, “They took me in as a son and influenced my life to make a difference with the youth.”
“This is home for me. Every day I walk here, I say thank you, Lord for giving me the path to help others among what will be my forever home,” he said.
