This blog post was written by Joy Y. Sebe United Way of King County associate director of Education Strategies.

On a sunny April afternoon, the Kent community came out to celebrate the opening of a new gym for young people of color at the Glover EmpowerMentoring office (GEM). Dr. Kendrick Glover started GEM in 2014 to provide mentors for young men in the Kent area to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline in South King County.

Dr. Glover has poured so much love into the community over the years, and the community loved him and GEM right back. The new gym has a boxing ring, weight training equipment, a punching bag, and basketball hoops.

In attendance for the ribbon-cutting ceremony were Mayor of Kent Dana Ralph, Assistant Chief of Police Jarod Kasner, a representative from the Kent Chamber of Commerce, and fellow members of United Way of King County’s Racial Equity Coalition (REC) and Black Community Building Collective.

Of the coalitions, Kim Ford and Dominique Davis of Community Passageways (pictured in banner photo), Nicole Barker of Open Doors for Multicultural Families, and Naomi Mulitauaopele Tagaleo’o of Education with Purpose Foundation for Pacific Islanders (pictured in banner photo) came out to show their love!

Congratulations Dr. Glover and GEM!  Special thanks to Naomi Mulitauaopele Tagaleo’o for the photos and videos!