The First Tee of Canton is a youth development organization that provides educational programs centered on promoting good character traits and healthy lifestyle choices through golf.
“Golf is just a tool that we utilize to help teach young people our core values,” says Angela Palomba, executive director of The First Tee of Canton.
The organization teaches sportsmanship, courtesy, responsibility, perseverance, integrity, judgment, confidence, respect and honesty to children between the ages of 5 and 18, even those who have never golfed before.
“We’re not here to make the next future pro golfer,” Palomba says. “We’re here to make them great people by learning a great game that they can utilize the rest of their lives.”
Keeping an eye on grades
Children who come to The First Tee learn basic golf etiquette and rules. Instructors talk with participants before they go on the course about the lesson of the day — respect, for example — and how to show it not only while playing golf, but at home, in the classroom, everywhere. After the lesson, they hit the course or they practice putting, chipping and driving.
“During their course play with our volunteers and staff, we reinforce what they discussed for the first half-hour,” she says. “So if we talked about respect, then while they’re on the course we’ll point out when they are showing each other respect or asking if they recognize that as something that they just did.
“That’s making it a little more apparent to them what the values mean in reality versus what the dictionary definition is.”
The classes culminate in assessments on their playing and what they’ve learned about the values they’ve been taught. Passing means they move on to the next level.
It’s not just the grades children earn in The First Tee’s classes that the organization is concerned with — it also focuses on the participant’s school grades.
“We are very adamant about tracking and keeping an eye on the grades of our participants. At the end of each of their nine weeks in school, we ask them to submit their report cards to us,” she says. “If they have A’s and B’s on their report cards we recognize them.”
An asset to the parents
The First Tee is hoping that its values translate to improved performance in the classroom. Palomba says the value of perseverance, for instance, may encourage a child to see a tough class through. Showing responsibility might send the message that children need to do their homework and turn assignments in on time without their parents intervening.
Parents who notice a decline in their child’s grades will sometimes reach out to the nonprofit’s program director and ask him to speak with the child. Those participants who really enjoy golf and envision the game being part of their high school careers may take steps to improve.
“We explain to them that being involved in the competitive standpoint of a sport, you’re not going to be able to do that if you aren’t keeping up with your grades,” Palomba says. “So we consider ourselves as an asset to the parents if they need us to talk with the kids about maintaining their grades and of the importance of doing it.”
Tracking participants’ grades allows the organization to track the progress of the child. It also gives The First Tee feedback on what its programs have done for their lives.
Making better people
The nonprofit also has relationships with area schools and its programming is being taught by the physical education teachers at the elementary level.
“So we can see the impact through the actual schools and those kids that are participating in their physical education classes,” she says. “And those are still fairly new relationships, but we’re able to track the number of kids, how many we’ve impacted, what the growth is that we experienced in that relation.”
The organization has recently partnered with the YMCAs of Central Stark County to offer after-school programming at their locations, which provides another avenue for it to track the impact and get feedback.
“We did surveys last year at the end of the programming to just ask the kids what certain things meant to them, what did they learn?” Palomba says. “Their feedback was tremendous on what they learned from our programming, especially on focusing on healthy habits and healthy living and how they incorporated that into their life.”
Healthy living, in this case, isn’t centered on diet or activity, but surrounding themselves with good people in their communities and at their schools, she says.
“We’re trying to make better people, make the kids understand basic life values,” Palomba says. “We pride ourselves on their behavior. When they’re in the community or they’re at other courses playing, they’re very responsible.
“We tell them, when they’re here at our course, this is your course. You take care of it the same as if you’re playing at another course. You pick up trash if you see something on the course. Things may seem simple, but in the big scheme of things we’re teaching them to focus on those little details that they may or may not have focused on.”
