Ace Boxing Club, a nonprofit gym for at-risk youth located at Kosciuszko Park on Milwaukee’s south side, is working to reopen after a fire broke out Monday night.Cory Keller, a student at the gym, was in the ring when the fire broke out in the back wall and part of the ceiling.”It was an electric fire up there; it started smoking and this entire thing burned down,” Keller said, referring to the back wall of the gym.The gym, which has been training at-risk youth for free for 66 years, is now shuttered. Coach Jason Janiszewski started as a student in the gym decades ago. “Our motto is that it’s better to sweat in the gym than bleed in the streets,” he said.Janiszewski called himself a “punk kid,” and said Ace Boxing was a safe space for him to grow up. When asked where he’d likely be today without the mentorship he received at Ace Boxing, he said probably nowhere good.”I probably don’t want to say. Jail, maybe,” Janiszewski said.With the gym’s closure, over 20 students are left without a place to train. Coach Jaime Nerios said it’s a second home for a lot of the students. “Sending them home. It just hurts,” Nerios said. The gym relies solely on donations, Janiszewski explained. “None of us get paid. None of us ever have. It’s a labor of love,” he said.Without cash flowing in, coaches need to figure out how to come up with $10,000 for repairs on their own. “I learned more discipline. I learned more self-control,” Keller said. “It’s been more than a boxing gym here. It’s been like a family.” The team hopes to reopen by the end of next week. They are accepting donations on their website here.
MILWAUKEE —
Ace Boxing Club, a nonprofit gym for at-risk youth located at Kosciuszko Park on Milwaukee’s south side, is working to reopen after a fire broke out Monday night.
Cory Keller, a student at the gym, was in the ring when the fire broke out in the back wall and part of the ceiling.
“It was an electric fire up there; it started smoking and this entire thing burned down,” Keller said, referring to the back wall of the gym.
The gym, which has been training at-risk youth for free for 66 years, is now shuttered.
Coach Jason Janiszewski started as a student in the gym decades ago. “Our motto is that it’s better to sweat in the gym than bleed in the streets,” he said.
Janiszewski called himself a “punk kid,” and said Ace Boxing was a safe space for him to grow up. When asked where he’d likely be today without the mentorship he received at Ace Boxing, he said probably nowhere good.
“I probably don’t want to say. Jail, maybe,” Janiszewski said.
With the gym’s closure, over 20 students are left without a place to train. Coach Jaime Nerios said it’s a second home for a lot of the students.
“Sending them home. It just hurts,” Nerios said.
The gym relies solely on donations, Janiszewski explained.
“None of us get paid. None of us ever have. It’s a labor of love,” he said.
Without cash flowing in, coaches need to figure out how to come up with $10,000 for repairs on their own.
“I learned more discipline. I learned more self-control,” Keller said. “It’s been more than a boxing gym here. It’s been like a family.”
The team hopes to reopen by the end of next week. They are accepting donations on their website here.