REM Award Honorees (2008) — Cleveland Brown (Alfond Youth Center)
Cleveland Brown (“Brownie”) became involved with the YMCA in 1985 when his kids signed up for a program and the YMCA was looking for coaches. Brownie gladly volunteered. In 1986, he began to volunteer for the Boys & Girls Club as well.
Brownie volunteers 30-40 hours a week to the Alfond Youth Center. He says he loves it and does it all for the kids. He teaches that “winning doesn’t mean anything; someone has to lose, you should play for the fun of it and learn the sport”.
At the Alfond Youth Center he runs the 7-8th grade “B League” and the 9-12th grade “B League,” which are made up of area youth cut from school basketball teams. He has coached PAL soccer for over 10 years. He runs the Fairfield PAL Youth K-6 girl 7-12th grade softball and the travel softball teams for multiple towns. Without his endless work many kids would be unable to be on any basketball or softball team to play the game.
Brownie works at Thompson Volkswagen-Audi-Mazda as their full time Service Manager. He has also been involved as a volunteer in the Fire Service as a volunteer firefighter for area Fire Departments (Fairfield, Waterville) as is currently the Vice President/Fire instructor for the Central Maine Fire Attack School Inc., where he has trained over 1,000 firefighters to do their job. He lives in Fairfield Center with wife Lisa and has 2 grown daughters Jennifer & Heather and three grandchildren Michael, Jayda, and Jasmine.
We are so proud to recognize the tremendous contribution Brownie makes to the Alfond Youth Center and the entire community!
For more information about the Alfond Youth Center, please visit its website.