Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

Announcer 0:00
This is a KUNV Studios original program.

Wesley Knight 0:04
You're listening to special programming sponsored by Making Moves Life Coaching Services. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and More, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Pick it back and

Music 0:30
pick it south. Come on, talk to me, so you can't see what's going on. Yeah, what's going on? Tell me what's going on.

Dave Washington 0:50
What's going on, Las Vegas? It's a great day. It's a great day to be alive and doing well. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I have Wes in the control room keeping me on point. We have a guest that will join us shortly after I make a few announcements. Once again, Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 jazz and more. In terms of condolences, while Marsh and I had a chance or an opportunity, unfortunate circumstances, but we went over to the memorial services of Fire Chief Robert Osby this past weekend, and what a great program his wife Kelly and his son Darryl put on. So grateful for that opportunity again under sad circumstances, but what a great man Chief Osby, and it really showed through the participation of those who came from near and far to be with the family to celebrate an outstanding what did what did his wife say just a just a great great person he was magnificent as Kelly said magnificent guy so with that once again condolences to the Osby family birthdays, man, do we have some birthdays this month? And I missed a lot of them for September, but for the month of October, we have Amira, granddaughter; Nathan, son-in-law; Casara, granddaughter; Angel, daughter; Chris, grandson. We wish all of them a happy birthday, which once again will occur this month, and Marsha, whom I count on each month to get me some information on birthdays. So, Shondell Newsome, Sweet Lou Collins, Senator State Senator Dina Neal this month, Aaron Arrington, who always puts on some great shows. He's a creative guy. He does some wonderful work within our community. Marty Fireson birthday this month, and also Vanessa Williams Nash birthday in the month of October. So just wanted to acknowledge those folks. In terms of announcements, we have a golf tournament. The Armstrong golf tournament will occur on the third of October. It's a Saturday, and I'm sure that if you haven't gotten involved in it, you're probably too late. But I would look up Dusty Armstrong to see if there's any additional spots available. But I have my team, Lewis Retten, myself. We have Wiley Burns, and we have Fred Herron. We are going to go for the goal, y'all. Just so you know, an additional golf tournament will be at the end of the month. That will be something that I asked Marcia to send me. It's called Ivy and Pearls Golf Classic. That will occur on Friday, october 30, and it's at Rhodes Rent. So I don't have that contact information, but I'm sure they have a website somewhere. And that was at the request of Miss Sheree, who gave me that information about this particular group? So Sheree, we hope that folks will participate in it, so it'll be a great fundraiser for that group. And then finally, voter education on October 24, where myself, Marsha, Nedra Armstrong, couple other folks will do voter education in honor of Dr. Ruby Duncan over at Sarah and Knight Senior Housing, and then the final announcement for the month of October, the same day, we will be acknowledging and participating in a Black Men's Health Workshop that will be put on by the OGs over at Doolittle. Sure, they have a website that I don't have at hand, but certainly is something worth participating in. And then for our guest today, Miss Gwen Walker, and Gwen, give your your new married last name, if you will. She has the African American Museum, and we're gonna have her to. Give us some input on an update in terms of what's going on with that. Hey, Gwen, how you doing?

Gwen Walker 5:05
Doing great, Captain. How you doing?

Dave Washington 5:07
I'm doing well. Doing well.

Gwen Walker 5:09
This opportunity to join you today on your show. My married name is Abdullah A B D U L L A H, but I still go by Gwen Walker because that's how everybody knows me,

Dave Washington 5:22
right?

Gwen Walker 5:22
And as far as the museum, we're making progress. It's slow, but it's sure. We recently finally got some air conditioning in there. We had a wonderful donation from a gentleman outside of our community, but he saw the need and and loved what we're all about, and he made sure that happened. We know we still have to get flooring. We have some linoleum that the late Billy McCurdy donated to us. We're not sure if that's going to work out, but we're going to try them and see. And then, of course, we need to get a window replace and window treatments, and then some minor things, some small paint touch-ups and things like that, and then to to bring in some of the additional curios and things that we've acquired. So we're getting really close, and we're hoping and praying that we can get this all done before the end of the year, hopefully by Kwanzaa, which would be a great opportunity to open up for the community.

Dave Washington 6:27
All right, well, that was that's great update on what's going on. You know what, Gwen, I'm I'm just being a terrible interviewer today. Look, please give us some background. Give our listening audience those who aren't familiar with what you're doing. How did it come about, and when did you get started?

Gwen Walker 6:43
Okay, well, actually, I didn't know that I was gonna ask actually start a museum. I, at the age of 13, I had to do a book report at J.D. Smith Junior High School, and there was very little in the library on Black history. I found a little bit on George Washington Carver and a little bit on slavery, so I went home to my mom and I said, "Mom, you know I want to do a report, but I don't want to do it on the same thing that everybody talks about. So she said, "We'll take care of that, and she ordered me a seven-volume set of the Negro Heritage Encyclopedias, which I have that set in the museum on display, and of course, I was able to go through and find many, many pioneers and ancestors that contributed to the Black history in these United States. So I was able to do that, and then of course, time passed and everything, and I started collecting from that. My mom, of course, had subscriptions to the Jet and Ebony magazines, and I kept all of those. And just over the years, I just collected everything that is about us, for us, and by us. So you're looking at probably a collection of in excess of 30, 40,000 pieces, anywhere from postage stamps to dolls, and that is the Gwen and Walker collection that will be on display at the museum. Never everything all at once because you know our building is just a small 1000 square foot, and of course we're still trying to raise funds to eventually build our permanent facility. That the wonderful architect, mr. Mel Green, and his staff drew the plans for us quite some time ago. And of course, we'll be tweaking that as we go along. And if we're fortunate enough to, you know, get the funding right now, they're estimated with the new costs of everything anywhere in excess of $10 million to build a facility of 10,000 square feet and state of the art. But we're very hopeful, and as long as I have breath, we will continue to raise funds, and we're going to open at 705 Van Buren in the very very near future. I know a lot of people say when when you gonna open when you gonna open your and close, you know. But as you know, I took care of my mom with dementia from 2013 until I lost her last October, and she was my number one priority. So now, with my new husband and blessings and a lot of involvement now and support from the community, we hope to to get it back open real soon, so everyone can see that I've kept on working. I never stopped. You know, the house looks like a museum right now, right? But we're constantly inventorying now because I never inventory. You know, I was collecting all of these past 50 plus years, just collecting and trying to get it out of the hands of people that capitalized on our history and not use it to uplift us as a people. So that's my concern, and that's what I want to do. So when I'm gone, it will still stand for our generations to. Come to know from whence we came.

Dave Washington 10:02
Excellent. So, Gwen, in terms of the 10,000 square foot space, will that be on that location, or is it another spot that you're looking at, or will it be right there?

Gwen Walker 10:13
Well, that I know a lot of people say, "Well, hey, you should move. We don't own all of the land there. We own two of the eight and a quarter parcels. The city owns two; used to be three, and then there's three other owners on the property. So we're hoping that's where God planted me, had me there three years in a row before I finally gave in and said, "Okay, God, you want me here for a reason. He kept taking me back

Dave Washington 10:38
to

Gwen Walker 10:39
that little boarded crack house, so I'm just following what the spirit is showing me, and we hope that things can fall into place. I know the city in years past, with the previous management council and things of that nature from years ago, they always told me that you know if we came up with our money to build the building, then they would probably give us the land that they own, and then we just have to come up with the funds to buy the other owners out and build it there. And if you remember from the 100 plan, the original 100 plan that we came up with during the time the charrettes meetings were happening at the Fifth Street School under Councilman Ricky Barlow, the Walker African American Museum is in that 100 plant at that location on page three.

Dave Washington 11:34
Not to cut you off, but we got about 30 seconds. So could you, if there's a website or how can people contact you if they're interested in making a donation toward what you're trying to accomplish with respect to the African American Museum.

Gwen Walker 11:47
Okay, well they can reach me at area code 702-752-6043, which is the museum line, and of course we do an account at Chase Bank, so they can always make a donation at any Chase Bank under the Walker African American Museum and Research Center. The email that they can reach on is lowercase the Walker AA museum@yahoo.com.

Dave Washington 12:16
Great!

Gwen Walker 12:17
And again, Dave, thank you so much for including us on your today's program.

Dave Washington 12:21
For sure, and thank you, Gwen, for what you're doing. And we will continue our prayers that everything will come to fruition that you're working on, in honor of your mom in particular. So thank you, Gwen, and once again, Los Figures. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and More. Signing off right now for this segment with Gwen Walker. She Muhammad. She is with the African American Museum over in West Las Vegas. Thank you. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and shortly I'll introduce the coach and have him come in and give us an update on what he's doing with our young people in the community. However, right now I want to just state a few more birthdays. Vince Jordan's birthday is in the month of October. Irene Johnson, she's an evangelist. She's in Crystal King Thompson' birthday this month. Tony Woods Morgan, we know Tony, great person, and then of course Max Maxine Porter, man, she's been a long time supporter of ours throughout my career in fire service. And her birthday, she has a big celebration coming up, and we wish her well in that regard. Charlotte Crump Wilson' birthday this month, and Cassandra Bell also birthday in the month of October. So with that, we're going to introduce Coach Tate. He's doing some wonderful work with our young people within our community. So Coach, how you doing,

Coach Tate 13:53
sir? Doing great, Chief. Doing real good.

Dave Washington 13:56
Excellent. Give us a little bit of background on you, Coach. I know you've been on the program before. It's been a while, so just want to reintroduce you to our community out there. In fact, we have people, as I mentioned a few moments ago, we have people who listen from around the world. So, with that, go for it, Coach.

Coach Tate 14:15
Yes, my name's Coach Tate, and I've been working with youngsters since 1962. Started with little league baseball and worked up until 92. We started the East Palo Alto T-ball pitching machine program because we were getting youngsters that had no introduction to baseball. So that's what our program is about: trying to teach them skills of how to play the game, but not just baseball. About life, giving them an opportunity to see different things and places that can help them become a much better person.

Dave Washington 14:52
Excellent. Tour

Coach Tate 14:53
college campuses. We 2017. We had opportunity to take. Take a group of kids to Cuba for a week. Prior to that, we were doing tournament in Birmingham, Alabama, Piper Dave's

Dave Washington 15:08
tournament,

Coach Tate 15:09
and this was an international tournament. We had teams coming in from the Caribbean up and down the Eastern Seaboard and through the South, giving them opportunity to play at Rickwood Field, which is the oldest baseball field in the country, that's the baseball field Willie Mays played at when he was playing for the Birmingham Black Barons. But the main thing is to try to get them to realize the importance of learning, so that they can move forward in life. And in doing so, all the youngsters. Our program is 34 years old. All of the answers from our program that's gone to college has gone academically. We sent nobody on a sports scholarship. That is excellent. We have one this past May who graduated from Vanderbilt Law School.

Dave Washington 15:54
Excellent.

Coach Tate 15:55
We have one in Denver six years ago, NYU Medical School. These are youngsters that were going to educational workshops that our program was giving, touring college campuses. We've taken kids to Arizona. We visit the Buffalo Soldier Museum in Fort Watauga, Arizona. Those are things that we try to do because their chance of becoming a professional baseball player is very thin,

Dave Washington 16:22
right?

Coach Tate 16:22
But if they go and learn and see these other things that's available, the sky is the limit.

Dave Washington 16:30
Absolutely, and I know that giving kids some some opportunity to learn about life skills is certainly essential to any kind of success that one may achieve. So, Coach, what is the age group that you seek in terms of the the program starting out?

Coach Tate 16:46
We work with youngsters four to 14, and when I say youngsters, we work with boys and girls because I say we have sent none on sports scholarship. But just for parents to understand, if your child get the skills, those things are available, and a young lady can receive a softball scholarship going to college, just like a young man can receive a baseball scholarship going to college because of Title IX. Yeah. For every baseball scholarship that's given, there has to be a matchy softball scholarship. So that's why we try to encourage the other side of that.

Dave Washington 17:24
That is excellent. I can tell you that I know there was a young young lady with the Henderson baseball team that went to the nationals and won the United States program, and she made history being one of the first women to be involved, young ladies, I should say, to be involved. So, what you're doing in terms of inviting and allowing young women to be a part of the be a part of the overall process is great because they need encouragement as well. That's excellent. Exactly. Kudos to you.

Coach Tate 17:54
Yeah, yeah. You know, and and we don't really have businesses are not supporting the youth like they used to 20 years ago. We started giving a golf tournament

Dave Washington 18:05
to

Coach Tate 18:06
help raise funds for our program, so we could keep the youngsters out on the field and at a minimum cost to them.

Dave Washington 18:15
Right.

Coach Tate 18:16
And this year, our golf tournament is coming up October the

Dave Washington 18:20
19th

Coach Tate 18:20
at Shearline Golf Course in Mountain View, California. Mountain View is between San Jose and San Francisco, a rock throw from Santa Clara, where the 40 Niners play football at. Oh, okay. And wonderful area. In fact, when I first came to Vegas from that area, I'm from East Palo Alto, California. The first eight years, we took youngsters back in August. We'd go for a weekend and we toured college campuses to Stanford, Cal, USF, San Francisco State, Cal State, Hayward. You could talk to youngsters about college, but if they've never seen a college campus, we speak in Greek.

Dave Washington 19:03
True, and so

Coach Tate 19:04
we want to put them in a situation so that they can see. And we don't just go and walk when we do these tours. We have either professors or different people at work at the university that give the tours and point different high points out for their particular schools and things of that nature.

Dave Washington 19:21
Excellent. Well, once again, this is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. We have the great coach Tate, who's doing wonderful things with our young people. So you got a website, coach, that people can can make contact because I think it's outstanding that you guys are doing the work and you're leading this role and have been leading this role for a number of years.

Coach Tate 19:47
Yes, I do, Chief. But in going into that, I would like to also say I am a veteran. I was I'm a veteran of the Vietnam War Fourth Infantry Division. I received a Purple Heart in February of 1967.

Dave Washington 20:04
Wow! Our

Coach Tate 20:05
website is ballcharts.com forward slash Junior Giants Junior spelt out, and there is an area there that you can make donations to the organization. There's different things on there in California. All of our teams are named after Negro League teams. We have a section there that talks about Negro League teams, the different players and things. We have pictures from our previous golf tournaments, from our trip to Cuba. We try to put these things out so people can see we're not just standing still. We're really trying to make sure that we can encourage these youngsters to do bigger and better things.

Dave Washington 20:48
Great. So, in terms of registering and and when you have a program running, what's the time frame, and how does one? I'm assuming that website is how the local children from here in Las Vegas can sign up for what you're doing here locally. Well,

Coach Tate 21:03
the the website and two little community center, they could pick up applications to Pearson Center, and we take stuff around to the schools in that area. Okay, and from at different times, if we hit it right. Your station there, 91.5, will you know give us a little shout out, letting people know that we're going on the field and you know how they can come to us. We we will go back on the field for our winter program, the middle of January, and we play through March. We take a break because we share the field with another organization. We go back the middle of June and play through July, so we play both a winter and a summer program.

Dave Washington 21:50
So you have a multiple teams involved because because when particularly when I think about the various age groups, I would assume. So what's what's those categories if if you would? Yeah,

Coach Tate 22:01
we break we break them down four to six. You might get a youngster at seven that hasn't really developed, so you keep him there a little longer. Then we go into coach pitch, and that's seven to 10, and

Dave Washington 22:16
then

Coach Tate 22:16
we go with the individual where the youngsters are pitching for themselves, and we and and that's that's how it's it's broken down. But we have had in the past we've had former Major League Baseball players who have come and given us assistance in doing clinics and things for the for these youngsters that are out on the field with us. In fact, one of the youngsters who came and played when I first came here 22 years ago, five years old. That young man is still with me as one of my head coaches, one of my top coaches. Very helpful, and at the same time, chief, he is a part of the fire department here in Las Vegas for Clark County.

Dave Washington 23:06
Oh, great! So,

Coach Tate 23:07
and and in doing that, things that we can't normally get to happen at Doolittle, he's been able to get the fire truck to come to our field on a Saturday, giving youngsters opportunity to see what a fire truck looked like close and personal, holding the fire hose, these sorts of things, going to the engine house in smaller groups and letting them see this is what goes on at a firehouse. We have a pig farm here that's about 25 minutes up the highway, which I was met the owner, and he gave us an opportunity once a year to bring the kids up, and they have an open house. They roast a pig, and they do hay rides. Kids holing a chick, and you see them with a smile on their face, just being that close to an animal. Right, it makes you feel good.

Dave Washington 23:59
Absolutely. So just so it doesn't intimidate anyone, now that that the initial group, as you said, what was it, four to six or seven, is that the t is that the t ball group? Yes. Explain the t ball group so people will understand what that means. Because our daughter Amber played tee ball. It's it's a little different, but it's appropriate for that age group,

Coach Tate 24:21
yeah. Well, well, t-ball is is for youngsters who are not familiar with the game, but we work with all of our kids the same way. You could be older, and we will have you hit off the tee to give you the confidence to get ready to hit a moving ball, right? And keep the the the the ball sits on a tee. It's stationary, and the youngster hits it. But before we get to that, when we first go out for the first two weeks, they won't see a bat because we're teaching them the proper way to catch.

Dave Washington 25:00
Right,

Coach Tate 25:00
a ball below your waist, fingers pointed to the ground. Above your waist, they pointed to the sky. You grip a ball this way to throw it, and we go through all of this, and they start asking after a few days, Coach, when we gonna get the hit? And I tell them, if you can't, if you can't get anybody out, you don't get up to hit, so let's learn how to catch and throw. Know where you're supposed to be at certain times, and the hitting will come. Right,

Dave Washington 25:27
you know what? It brings me back to my fire training officer days, coach, where you got to teach the basic fundamentals, and that's that foundation will take you further than just going out there hitting balls and not having a clue. And like you say, knowing your place on the field and what position you're playing and what's required of that-that is excellent,

Coach Tate 25:46
right? Yeah, because yeah, you know, we we try to build the whole body, and like I say, we'll cut practice short and gather around home plate. What's your What's your favorite subject? What's your best subject? Your the subject you get your best grade in may not be your favorite subject. You know, we want to have an idea of what their thought process

Dave Washington 26:08
is. Right, excellent.

Coach Tate 26:10
And that way, we can work along with and just bringing up different conversations on some of these different areas that they're interested in to help keep them motivated.

Dave Washington 26:20
Sure. No, I think you're building a solid foundation, and as you mentioned earlier, whether they go on to the pros because the likelihood and the the percentage of getting there is so remote, man. But just building that solid foundation, I think it'll help them through life. So we got about a two and a half minutes. So any any final remarks you want to make, and please indicate if you will give that website again, Coach, and I'll assure you that Marsh and I will be making a contribution.

Coach Tate 26:49
Yes, our website is ballcharts.com forward slash Junior Giants, and Junior is spelled out Junior Giants, and we have information on different functions that we've done, functions that are coming up as they come up down the road, and things of that nature. There was just the HBCU College Fair here last weekend. Those are some friends of mine from Sacramento that we were able to encourage to come here. They came about 2012, and been coming every since. And there's been 1000s of youngsters that have gone to college, and and and really helped them through life because of you know this. And it's all about us communicating with others and trying to stay positive. And let's what they say: each one teach

Dave Washington 27:41
one, indeed. Each one

Coach Tate 27:42
help one. Let's just continue to try to help these youngsters move forward and and live a better life.

Dave Washington 27:49
Absolutely, Coach. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and more. We just had the great coach, Coach Tate, who's doing wonderful work with our young people within our community, not only here but in several other locations around our country, we we commend you, Coach, and we will certainly be sharing this radio program with others. So hopefully, we you get a number of contributions to what you're doing. So once again, know that you are appreciated, my brother, and I know you and we you probably mentioned it before, Coach, but I just forgot. God bless you, man. Purple Heart recipient to our Lydian listening audience of Veterans Affairs,

Coach Tate 28:30
Chief. I was I was loving Bravo. You know what that is. I was out there in the middle of it. All right.

Dave Washington 28:36
Thank you, Coach. You take care and Godspeed. We hope that you continue with your. I

Coach Tate 28:40
appreciate you letting me come on to speak about our program and things. And and when we have been here, you have come and played in our tournament before. We thank we thank you very much for all the support you give us.

Dave Washington 28:52
Absolutely. Once again, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5. Jazz Moore signing off, and we had the great coach, Coach Tate.

Music 29:31
All the smoke in the air, feel the hate when they stare. All the pain that we bear on.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai