JENNIE: Augusta Boxing Club celebrates 50th anniversary with boxing match and annual Knock Out the Need book bag giveaway

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)– The Augusta Boxing Club is a structured after-school and community support organization that uses boxing as a means to get troubled youth off the streets and into a structured environment. The program builds confidence, develops self-discipline, instills a strong work ethic, and teaches teamwork. And in its 50-year history, thousands of young people have benefited from the program.

Ray Whitfield is the director of the Augusta Boxing Club and Tiffany Cannon is the club’s executive coordinator.

JENNIE: Ray, you were a professional boxer for 16 years. Wow. And then you were at the Augusta Boxing Club for a good portion of your life.

Ray Whitfield: Yes, for 13 years. Tom Moraetes started the boxing club in 1974 to help youngsters find and develop themselves and give them something to help them stay out of trouble. You know, show them something different. When I joined the boxing club, my uncle and I were at the 1996 Olympic trials, and when I saw that, I thought, “I want to box.” So they took me, and I developed my talent and became a national champion. And then I moved up to the professional league in 2004 at the 2004 Olympic trials, and that just did so much for me as a young man. So when I took over maybe 16 years ago, I just wanted to do the same thing, show the kids that there’s another way, another world out there. And you know, there’s just a lot that people can do, things that we can do that can help the kids.”

JENNIE: And you’ve benefited from that and then you give back. You support the schools. And your 6th annual book bag drive is coming up soon.

Tiffany Cannon: “Six years! It’s been fun to see some of the kids come by and just say thank you and be excited to get a new school bag and school supplies and get ready to go back to school. We have a lot of great sponsors that help us make this time so eventful for the kids. We give out free food. They have a bouncy castle. One of our sponsors, Geico, brings the gecko and his uniform. The kids love it. They dance and have fun. To date, we’ve probably given away over 2000 school bags in the community.”

The Augusta Boxing Club will once again host its 50th Anniversary Boxing Match on Saturday, July 27. The bookbag drive will be from 9:00 a.m. to noon and the boxing match will be from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. It will be held at the May Park Community Center at 622 4th Street in Augusta.