Congratulations to Lillie Brown, one of our 2017 Wonder Women.
Lillie Brown understands today’s children will be tomorrow’s leaders, and that many of them need help finding their way. It’s what has driven her, for nearly 30 years, to help Plant City youth get whatever it is they need to get through this thing called “life.”
Brown, a recreation supervisor for the Plant City Recreation and Parks Department, has spent nearly all of that time in the MLK Rec Center, whether working for the city or for the Boys and Girls Club branch formerly based there. She’s helped thousands of kids strengthen their educations and grow as people since 1989 and has no plans to stop soon.
“It’s just a privilege to me because I feel like I’m giving something that kids need,” Brown said. “They need that. My staff, myself, they need that.”
Brown lived in North Carolina and New Jersey before moving to Plant City in 1984, and she spent several years working for the American Bank Stationery Company in town. She found out about the local Boys & Girls Club in 1989 while looking for new activities for her son, who played football and baseball. Within two weeks, Brown came aboard as the club’s physical director. Three years later, Brown was promoted to branch director.
She remained in the position until 2007, when the club ceased operations at the rec center. The club eventually reopened but was no longer based out of the rec center.
Brown was able to get back to the center in 2011, when she joined Plant City’s Recreation and Parks Department. These days, she and the center’s two staff members work with kids from elementary through high school and ensure their needs are met.
That could be something as involved as tutoring, mentorship or training to apply for jobs, and it could also be as simple as providing homework checks, a safe environment and food for kids in need. It also comes from programs like the annual health fair, back-to-school drives and the Summer Youth Program, which keeps kids engaged mentally and physically during summer vacations.
“They need me and they need my staff,” Brown said. “We are there to do whatever we can to make things work for them.”
Brown has always made it a point to go the extra mile for the kids. One of her favorite ways to do this is by preparing home-cooked meals for the kids at least twice a week, which gives them a break from snacks they might otherwise eat. She said the United Food Bank of Plant City and Felton’s Meat and Produce Market will sometimes donate food to help feed the hungry mouths.
But arguably the most important thing Brown does is make the kids feel like they have a place they can call home, or a second home. It’s more difficult for some kids than others but Brown said, with some extra attention and care, those who have had trouble adjusting to life at the rec center right away often step up and become role models for the rest of the kids there.
Brown said many kids don’t feel that they can express themselves in their own homes, so she and the staff encourage them to speak their mind with the assurance that anything said to them at the center will stay there. Once kids begin to open up, she said, they can come out of their shells and live with newfound confidence.
Brown said she wouldn’t trade her job for anything because, for her, nothing can top the satisfaction of knowing she and her staff improved a child’s life.
“They need to know that they have a safe place to go,” Brown said. “Somewhere they feel like they belong. They need all of that, and that’s a part of growing up.”
