Spring Break
City awards associate
professor for youth program
Bryn Graziano, Daily Staff Writer
Nora Campos, San Jose's District Five councilwoman, presented the award and thanked Butler for nine years of service as program director for the SJSU National Youth Sports Program, which provides low-income children with a free physical and gives them the opportunity to participate in a five-week summer sports program, which is hosted by SJSU.
"Dr. Butler has had tremendous dedication," Campos said, "and donates his time to help children achieve their best."
Butler said the program is part of a national organization that began in 1968 and has impacted the lives of about 2,200 San Jose children over nearly a decade, with several objectives in mind.
Instilling the desire to plan for a future that includes college is one of the program's main goals, Butler said, along with teaching life skills.
"We want to expose kids to campus life," he said. "And inspire them to go to college by giving them a chance to interact with college students who have similar backgrounds to theirs."
The children are from local schools and between the ages of 10 and 16, Butler said. The program is dual faceted, incorporating a sports and fitness component as well as an educational one, and gets support from the community to provide it.
"We teach lifetime fitness skills in addition to traditional sports and take kids to the Ice Center, Tech Museum and to see the Oakland A's at no charge," he said. "We also address major problems that today's youth may encounter, such as gang violence, teen pregnancy, race relations and nutrition."
Butler said the program's staff is made up of 25 to 30 volunteers, many of whom have been advisees of his over the years and are very dedicated to helping the kids.
"Some have graduated, but they come back every year to help," he said.
The need for support is great, and the help of Kaiser Medical Center-Santa Teresa has been a crucial part of the process, by donating the use of their medical facilities and personnel to give the physicals, Butler said.
"Each physical costs between $60 and $70," he said, adding that they gave about 320 exams this year.
A community partnership developed eight years ago, when Dr. Calvin Gordon, chief of pediatrics at Kaiser, was looking for a community outreach project for the medical center, said Sylvia Townsend, employer liaison with Kaiser and a program volunteer. Gordon had a connection with someone at SJSU who put him in touch with Butler.
Seven doctors at Kaiser donate their time one Saturday each summer, Townsend said, as well as a support staff of about 40 nurses, medical assistants and other personnel, several of whom stood with Butler when he received the award.
Dr. Seham El Diwany, a pediatrician at Kaiser, spoke about the awardee.
"On behalf of pediatrics and the whole medical center," El Diwany said, "Thank you."
She said Butler coordinated the children on campus, helped parents complete the application process and then sent the children by bus to Kaiser for the physicals.
The physicals are an integral part of the program, Townsend said, because many of the children have little or no access to medical care. Sometimes a health problem may be identified in a child, she said, but the program is committed to provide follow-up guidance to the family.
In 1994, Butler wrote a federal grant to establish annual funding of a portion of the program by a joint commitment from the Department of Health and Human Services and the NCAA. Two years ago, he said he asked the City Council to supplement the federal government's grant.
Campos recently heard about work that Butler and Kaiser had done and felt that it was worthy of an award.
"I wanted to recognize them for their work," Campos said.
SJSU makes its contribution with in-kind services, which are not monetary but made by the use of campus facilities, he said, with this year's donation totaling between $75,000 and $100,000.
Breakfast and lunch are provided for the children, he said, and the federal monies weren't enough to cover the total cost, so he secured additional donations from the community.
"If it wasn't for the Second Harvest food bank making a $4800 donation of food, we wouldn't have been able to feed the kids," he said.
Butler said there are now about 200 schools in the United States that participate on a local level in the national program, which has been in existence for over 30 years.
"It's important to make a difference in and influence the lives of this age group," Butler said. "This program is the best kept secret in the U.S."
