Amid the crisis caused by COVID-19, one thing has remained certain: Families can count on the Downtown Boxing Gym. After 94 days of online tutoring, workouts and emergency deliveries of food and supplies, we recently launched our Safe Re-Open plan. We are thrilled to welcome our students back into the gym while continuing deliveries and online tutoring and workouts. So, how are our DBG students coping with the pandemic and so many changes? We talked to 10-year-old Mye to find out.
A bright and bubbly student, Mye has continued to excel in her life learning during quarantine. Her mom says that’s thanks in large part to DBG.
“They really picked up the ball and ran with it,” Krystal says about our DBG team that swiftly stepped up and adapted our programming due to the pandemic. “They were on top of it. It felt like the first week (of quarantine) they were right there offering support.
“They’ve done an excellent job engaging our children.”
Mye is a fourth-grader at Detroit’s Chrysler Elementary School. She counts math and science among her favorite subjects and says her remote learning routine begins precisely at 9:05 a.m. and continues throughout the day. She lists off each class without missing a beat. And each evening without fail, Mye gets in her DBG workout via Zoom.
“Tutors help me when I need it,” says Mye, who plans to become either a teacher or a doctor when she grows up, adding that she “really wants to help people.”
“They help with homework. We work out. The thing I like best is that we have virtual breakout rooms, which are like the classrooms that you would normally have, and then you get to stay connected to make sure everyone is still OK.”
Krystal says DBG’s founder and CEO Khali Sweeney and the gym’s dedicated team have gone the extra mile to help her only child flourish – in mind, body and spirit.
From yoga mats and jump ropes to journals for daily writing prompts and STEAM kits for science experiments, DBG has continued to provide the family with a seemingly endless list of supplies – and delivered it all right to their door.
“We even get food!” Mye exclaims, proudly noting that “if we don’t need something, we give it to someone else who does.”
Every week, Krystal says, the care packages come, packed with food and even hard-to-come-by items like paper towels, toilet paper and more. While she greatly appreciates the items, Krystal says what matters most is the comfort of knowing the DBG family is looking out for her and her daughter – especially as both adjusted to working and learning entirely from home — together.
“Right now, I’m working completely from home,” says Krystal, a recipient rights investigator for Wayne County. “Knowing that they are helping Mye helps me. Outside of bringing the care packages, it was just a blessing to have someone looking out. What’s most comforting for me is the fact that DBG is always there, they’re always helping, they’re always providing. So, keeping Mye engaged and giving her something to look forward to helps me.”
Mye is excited to see her friends and coaches at DBG for her second summer in the program.
“I can’t wait to play Connect 4 at the gym with my friends, run around with my friends and just have fun with them doing all the things we normally would and find out what they’ve been doing since we’ve been in quarantine,” she says, her voice bursting with anticipation. “I talk to my friends on the phone, but it’s not the same.”
Krystal, too, is ready for life to get back to some sense of normal. She says she has no doubt Mye will be safe at DBG.
“I am fully, fully confident that Khali and his staff are going to do whatever needs to be done” to protect everyone, Krystal says. “The way they love on our babies and protect them, I know everything will be fine.”
After all, Mye says, “[DBG] is one big family – a GINORMOUS family!”