Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Boxing academy looks to get students into ring BY GREG WEBSTER THE (iAMECOCK There is nothing eye-catching about the intersection of Two Notch and Fontaine. To many of the thousands of people who pass by, it is merely another red light during rush hour. But for Mitch Smith and a few others, the intersection has sig nificance. It’s where Smith’s gym, Palmetto Boxing Academy, is lo cated. The gym is one of two units in a brick building on the Northern corner of the intersection. A sign advertising his gym hangs by four bungee cords on the building’s brown, sheet-metal roof. Smith, a former USC football player who graduated in 1990 with a degree in criminal justice, opened the gym’s doors with two partners on Feb. 1. “My true goal with the boxing was to have an avenue to help the kids," he said. “From an early age, I’ve always-been a helper... It’s a real good feeling when somebody can call on you, and you know you can be there. I take pride in that." I _ Smith’s passion has taken him beyond just opening a gym in his pursuit of helping others. This past fall, he began attending graduate school at USC to study social work. “Over the years working, I was already in the field and figured I’d come back and get a license and get paid more for what I was al ready doing," Smith said as he sat behind his desk. “Really, its for the love of the kids." Smith’s love of helping can be traced back to his youth, north along 1-95 to exit 93 where his home town of Smithfield, N.C., lies less than two miles from the interstate. There, Smith grew up watching his grandfather, a pastor. “The way that people used to come to him for help, he would never turn anybody away, and I watched that, and it kind of grew on me that everybody needs a helping hand." But even with his family be hind him, Smithfield was still a hard place to grow up. For Smith, athletics was his way of keeping out of trouble. “Playing sports kept me busy, and I was one of those kids who could’ve been lost very easily," he said. It is this experience that has not only inspired Smith but also his partners, Keith Barrow and Andrew Stokes, to open Palmetto Boxing Academy. The three met two years ago through boxing. Raised in New York City, Barrow said he often witnessed kids getting in trouble and sacri ficing their futures. "Watching the kids running the streets and trying to catch them be fore they wound up in the peniten tiary — it got frustrating, “ Barrow said. “When Drew introduced me to Mitch, he wanted to make a YMCA-type of boxing gym. We re alized when we first met we all were going in the same direction." And while the three are still de termined in their focus to help peo ple, they are still faced with the daunting task of starting a new business. The “For Lease” sign oc cupying the window of the neigh boring unit stands as a reminder of the risks involved. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknewsfagwm.sc.edu Theater CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 tion that enlarged the stage and other rooms, and installed a “fly loft," which is a counterweighted rigging system that allows for fast scenery changes. The theater is a small brick building that appears nondescript at first glance, but the two-story archway entrance portioned off by aqua-color window frames hints at the lively interior and rich his tory of entertainments. And it’s a list of similarly vivid features — historic architecture, community performances, theater * education — that has set this the ater apart from every other the ater in the nation and led to recog nition in the National Register of Historic Places. The theater was conceptually and architecturally designed as a community theater. Even now, it is fulfilling that role. “There is a camaraderie you form when you work in a theater like that," Roy Mitchell, 85, who has a permanent seat on the the ater’s Board of Governors and has been involved since 1957, said. “It makes you part of the community." Mitchell said that apart from three paid positions and a paid or chestra, the rest of the production and acting crews are entirely com posed of volunteers. And, he said, the community’s avid involve ment is what keeps the theater afloat. “We’re one of the few theaters that can say we are in the black," Mitchell said, referring to rev enues exceeding financial ex penses. The theater’s Web site, www.towntheatre.com, says the performances fill an average of 90 percent of the seats, for a seasonal showing of about 20,000 patrons. For Lynn and Mitchell, the pas sage of time has not impeded their passion for acting and theater. “Once and a while, I get an itch to act and beat it down,” Lynn said, now retired from perform ing. “I have an annual member ship — I try to get to see all the productions." “It’s a labor of love,” Mitchell said. The next production at Town Theatre is “Postmortem," a thriller, murder mystery. It will run from March 5 to March 20. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu Fire CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 said. He added that fire safety re strictions are too strict in some cases. “There are a lot of things that are prohibited in the name of fire prevention that aren’t neces sary," he said. Hark said restric tions on small appliances like George Foreman grills seem frivolous to some students and lead to apathy when it comes to more unsafe practices, such as burning candles. An unattended candle caused a small fire that evacuated Patterson Hall last September, and an electrical explosion in the Graduate Science Research Center caused power outages last November. In 1992, a fire in Columbia Hall burned out two rooms. No one was injured. Housing Director Gene Luna said that the fire ap peared to be caused by an electric cord, which housing prohibits. Even though the Clemson fire occurred in an off-campus apart ment building, Luna said USC students living on-campus need to follow certain rules to prevent the same thing from happening here. “We don’t think it’s likely that a full building will burn to the ground, but it has happened in other places," he said. He said one challenge housing officials face is getting students to respond to fire alarms every time they sound. “It’s so easy to think ‘it’s not going to happen to me’ until you lose a friend or a family mem ber," Luna said. Luna came to USC in 1992, one year after a study was conducted to assess the safety of on campus housing. He said the study re vealed that on-campus housing needed updated fire alarms and sprinkler systems. Housing has v been working ever since to make residence halls as safe as possible, installing new systems and bring ing older buildings up to code. “We’re proud of our track record, but we’re not finished,” Luna said. “We won’t be totally satisfied until we have sprinklers in all our facilities." All residence halls received updated fire alarm systems about seven years ago, and the systems are continually being upgraded as technology advances. The university has already in stalled sprinkler systems in South, East and West quads as well as in Capstone House, South Tower, Bates House, McBryde and the Greek Village. Next on the list of residence hall improvements is the instal lation of sprinklers in Columbia Hall, Patterson, Wade Hampton and McClintock. Because of theif tentative future, the Towers aren’t immediately on the list of halls to be upgraded. “We’ve got excellent, state-of the-art fire alarms in the build; ings," Luna said. According to Luna, the state fire ma.rshal and the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education have commended USC’s promotion of fire safety. “The University of South Carolina has been quite aggres sive in their approach to fire safe ty in housing,” Luna said. He. added that the university devotes a substantial amount of money to life-safety enhancement. Comments on this story?E-mail ... gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu 1 I council I Keep Your Spring CALLING ALL MINORITY WOMEN! -Meet new people k ' -Get in shape -Win prizes -Learn health tips i _-Become healthier ( F-. ^ BEGINS: March 22nd ENDS: April 19th MHC wants to help improve physical fitness among minority women. 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