Valerie Melton reflects on 30 years leading the Boys and Girls Club (2024)

When she first came to work at the Boys and Girls Club of Cabarrus County, Valerie Melton formed close bonds with Tony and Tiko Sanders.

She would often drive the brother’s home and take them to various events associated with the club.

Fast forward three decades, and the tens of thousands of young people Melton has impacted in her role as executive director of the club, when she reconnected with Tiko at What-A-Burger a few months ago.

“I know you don’t know who I am,” she recalled Tiko telling her, during a recent interview with The Independent Tribune. Once she learned who he was, the memories came flooding back of her time with Tiko and his brother.

Tiko asked Melton if she would speak with his mother, who was outside in the car. His mom thanked Melton for taking care of her boys those many years ago.

“It kind of rejuvenates you with what’s going on,” she told the paper, calling the reunion at the What-A-Burger “a little bit overwhelming.”

The surprise encounter helps illustrate the indelible impact Melton has had on so many people’s lives since she began her career with the Boys and Girls Club back in August 1994.

She has interacted with and helped many kids during her tenure, even those not affiliated with the club.

Joe Habina, the club’s director of operations, who has worked with Melton for more than two decades, recalled a teenage girl appearing at the Boys and Girls Club a few years ago. The girl had run away from her home in South Carolina and caught rides from strangers to arrive in the city, Habina said.

Recognizing how troubling a situation it was, Melton went to work, contacting the Concord police, social services and other mental health resources to make sure she was doing everything she could for the girl.

“Valerie stayed at the club with the girl for the next 3-4 hours as Concord police were able to connect with law enforcement from the town where the girl lived and to make contact with her family,” Habina told the paper. “Valerie is at her best when the stakes are the highest.”

Michael Duncan, who spent most of his childhood at the club, said Melton made him and his siblings feel safe.

“When my parents had to work and couldn’t be there, she always took care of us and all the kids at the club,” Duncan said. “She always made us feel welcome and was always teaching us new things.”

Duncan, 40, appreciated her friendly presence, noting she “always had the warmest smile” and made sure kids were having fun.

Tyra Cunningham, who also spent many years at the club — which she called her “second home” — echoed much of Duncan’s sentiments, noting how she became a mother figure to so many children.

“She was just like the mother that I needed when I was at the Boys and Girls Club away from my mom,” said Cunningham, 39, noting her warm hugs “were always the best.”

“She’s like the roots of the family tree that is the Boys and Girls Club,” Cunningham added.

The right ‘man for the job’

As intertwined as Melton has been with the club, she did not have any involvement with it while growing up, and it never crossed her mind as a potential place to work.

After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill with a journalism degree in 1982, she worked several jobs over the next few years, including as a production assistant for WRAL in Raleigh and as a marketing assistant for S&D Coffee & Tea in Concord.

Melton was intent on working on video production in Charlotte when her mother informed her that the Boys and Girls Club of Cabarrus County was looking for a new executive director.

Her mother encouraged Melton many times to apply for the job, which she eventually did. She was relaxed during the initial interview, she said, as she was still intent on a career in video production and never thought she would get the job.

After multiple interviews, Melton, much to her surprise, secured the position as the executive director. She would be the first woman to lead the organization, a newsworthy moment during a time when men still held most positions of power.

“At that time, there weren’t a lot of women that were executive directors of nonprofits,” Melton said.

When first offered the position, Melton recalls one of the board members telling her: “You’re our man for the job.”

Melton has often wondered what made her the right candidate, as many other people, with more relevant experience, had applied.

“I think what made the difference is that I think they just thought they needed a business edge, or someone who had supervised a lot of people and I had supervised folks older than me,” Melton said.

Expanding the club

The Boys and Girls Club was still a small organization when Melton began as director in August 1994, as there were only six full-time staff, including stalwarts Donnie Whittington and Jim Helms.

While athletics and the Keystone Club had been key assets for the club, when Melton took over, there was no formal after-school program and very limited summer programs aside from Camp Spencer.

“I focused in on after-school and summer,” she said. “How can we do more… to reach out to more kids?”

Regional Boys and Girls Club directors along with former Cabarrus Club executive director Hank Utley served as key mentors for Melton early on.

Children were coming to the club to take part in sports, but mainly from schools in proximity to the facility, such as Coltrane-Webb Elementary.

As she picked up her daughter Jordan from R. Brown McAllister Elementary, Melton would often bring additional kids and take them to the club. She soon pivoted and drove the club’s van, allowing her to transport an even larger number of kids.

Attention quickly grew as more schools realized the opportunity the club provided from an after-school perspective.

“So then folks from Beverly Hills said, ‘Well, that’s not fair,’” Melton said. “You’re picking kids up at R. Brown. What about Beverly Hills?”

Around the late 1990s to early 2000s, the county experienced a surge in people moving to the area, which resulted in more attention to services like an after-school program for young people.

“Cabarrus County just hit an amazing growth at that time,” Melton said. “It was just like the county was taking off. Schools were being built … it was the beginning of the community just exploding.”

With new schools like W.M. Irvin Elementary and Concord Middle opening, the club wanted to take advantage: “We wanted to figure out how to get them here,” Melton said.

It was around this time that the club began buying old school buses and transporting students directly from the schools to its location on Spring Street.

The club went from having one bus, one van and one truck when Melton started to now having 17 full-size buses, three shuttle buses, one cargo van and one truck, according to data the organization shared during Pancake Day to honor Melton’s anniversary. The Boys and Girls Club currently picks up students from 24 schools in the district, Melton said.

The after-school and summer programs are now a critical part of the club’s identity, with more than 1,800 students enrolled, according to the data shared on Pancake Day.

Besides growing the number of students served by the club, Melton increased the full-time staff (there are now 24 full-time employees) and, thanks to two capital campaigns, oversaw the facility expanding to 77,000 square feet, making the club the largest single-unit in the Southeast.

One aspect of Melton’s job that she is most proud of has been the consistently fantastic people she has hired.

Joe Habina called Melton a leader that “trusts her staff,” and is an excellent delegator. “She fosters an environment here in which people enjoy working,” he added.

“The thing that has made the 30 years go by so fast for me is it feels like about every five years, something major is changing,” Melton said. She explained, for example, that five years into her tenure in 1999, with the club growing at such a fast rate, she hired Habina, a former high school teacher and coach, as director of operations, so she could focus more on fundraising.

Once Habina was hired, from a programmatic standpoint, “it was amazing the changes that occurred,” she said.

“We just kept growing, slowly but surely,” she said.

No plans to slow down

Melton, 64, has no plans to retire anytime soon. She would like to work until she is at least 70, which was around the time longtime athletic director Donnie Whittington retired. “That’s kind of my marker,” she said.

“Donnie would always say to me: ‘There comes a time when you know it’s time to just let the young people take over and enjoy yourself,’” Melton said.

Tyra Cunningham said whenever Melton leaves, she will surely be missed. “It will always be Valerie’s house,” she said.

One advantage of leading the organization for three decades is experiencing young people — both those who attended the club and staff members — having their own kids and getting them involved with the club.

“So many of them now have their children here,” Melton said. “To see these folks all grown up and they’re coming back in and they’re talking about their experience here and they’re trusting us enough for their children to be here. That’s huge.”

Michael Duncan now has children active with the club — and the continuity of leadership is a big reason.

“The second generation of Duncans are now attending and honestly, if Valerie wasn’t still the director, I may have looked at other summer camp opportunities for my children,” Duncan said. “I know that the core and heart of it is still there.”

Whenever the days get tough or when Melton is struggling, she reminds herself that the club directs everything it does towards the betterment of the kids.

“Every time you see a kid, you realize you could be doing something incredible for that one kid,” she said, noting it is that kind of inspiration that always gives her the energy to keep going.

She also receives a boost from being around her 2-year-old granddaughter Estelle, who loves visiting the club. Melton enjoys seeing the club in a new perspective through Estelle’s eyes.

“She can’t wait to come visit me, she loves to see everybody here, and she loves to go to the gym,” Melton said.

Melton is looking forward to when Estelle starts kindergarten and can officially take part in the club’s programs.

“It’s going to be so cool to have a grandchild participating,” she said.