By Ann M. Tabb
The Commercial Dispatch
March 22, 2002

Columbus Brick Company employees on Friday put their skills to work by helping create the foundation for the new local boys & Girls Club.

Plant 1 Manager Mike Dowd said that 58,000 bricks were made between 6 and 9:30 a.m. at the plant, located at 114 Brickyard Road.

The bricks were made by using raw clay donated by the family of company president and chairman Al Puckett.

All 20 volunteers signed up and came in on their own accord and on their own time and on a chilly morning, no less," Dowd said.

Dowd and three volunteers from Columbus were warming up with coffee next to the plan's huge dryer, where the bricks will rest for the next four days before a final hardening in a 2,100-degree kiln.

Machine Operator Leroy Stinson said that he attended the Boys & Girls Club as a child.

Stinson, a soft-spoken machine operator, said that he just wanted to come out with his fellow machine operators to "help the club get off its feet."

Machine Operator Willie Wilson was a YMCA kid growing up, but he took the opportunity to help out what he believes is a worthy cause.

"I came out to give a little time because the children need a place to play and to stay in off the street," Wilson said. "It is dangerous out there."

Clarence Sherrod, who moved from Chicago to Columbus 11 months ago, said he has a lot of nephews and cousins who cannot wait for the center to open.

"It will be enjoyable to watch the kids have some fun in the new place once it opens," said Sherrod, who lives across the street from the site of the new club.

Sherrod operated a "pug," a machine that starts and stops the brick making process by determining the hardness of the bricks.

In December, ground was broken on the site of the $1 million future home of the club, to be located along 14th Avenue North. Tentative plans are to move the club from its 20th Street location in July 2002.