Basketballs bounce in uneven rhythm, laughter spills down the hall from the art room, and the hum of after-school chaos fills every corner of the Boys & Girls Club in Bethlehem. In the middle of it all stands CEO Winston Alozie, watching as a handful of kids run by, shouting, \u201cHey, Mr. Winston!\u201d<\/p>\n
He waves back \u2014 a steady and familiar presence. Around here, everyone knows Mr. Winston.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To the kids, he\u2019s the person who remembers their stories and their siblings\u2019 names. To his staff, he\u2019s a leader who brings partnerships and opportunities that help the club thrive. To the community, he\u2019s the man who once walked through the door as a shy eighth grader \u2014 and never really left.<\/p>\n
Before he became Mr. Winston, he was just Winston, a 13-year-old kid trying to find his footing in a new place. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, his family moved to Bethlehem in January 2001 to be closer to relatives in the northeast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The transition wasn\u2019t easy for Alozie.<\/p>\n
\u201cCulturally, it was a big shift,\u201d he said. \u201cI remember calling my teachers \u2018sir\u2019 and \u2018ma\u2019am,\u2019 and they\u2019d be like, \u2018Y\u2019all hear this kid?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Alozie approached the change the only way he knew how: by being kind, open and curious.<\/p>\n
His younger brother Chisom was the first to discover the Boys & Girls Club. One afternoon, Winston went to pick him up and decided to take a look inside.<\/p>\n
The decision changed everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember walking in and just feeling the warmth,\u201d Alozie said. \u201cIt was the first place I didn\u2019t have to try to fit in. They accepted me for who I was.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club became a second home, where Alozie did homework, made friends and learned to play Connect Four \u2014 eventually becoming \u201cunbeatable.\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was around that time Scott Perry, now the club\u2019s program director, first met Alozie. Perry remembers seeing a polite, curious teenager selling \u201cice sticks\u201d in the park to help his father\u2019s small business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw him out there trying to help his dad, and the next day he came up to me asking about the club \u2014 what we did and how to join,\u201d Perry said. \u201cEven back then, you could tell he cared about people. That hasn\u2019t changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alozie became a regular soon after, drawn in by the sense of belonging the club provided. Perry watched him grow from a reserved teen into a confident leader \u2014 one who, years later, would step into the same mentor role that once shaped him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just a great person to have here at the club,\u201d Perry said. \u201cHe knows the neighborhood, he knows the people, and he\u2019s genuinely kind to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
That kindness would define Alozie\u2019s leadership, but it was Cameron Alford who inspired it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alford was a young member with developmental delays who often struggled to fit in at the Boys & Girls Club.<\/p>\n
Alozie spent time with Alford, helping him manage his emotions and build confidence. It wasn\u2019t a formal mentorship, just quiet moments of consistency and care. Over time, Alford\u2019s confidence grew.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a kid like Cameron could benefit from an adult being a positive role model, I think my neighborhood would be a better place,\u201d Alozie said. \u201cThat inspired me.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Alozie became chief executive officer and executive director in October 2016, it was a full-circle moment. He was now responsible for the same club that shaped his youth. But instead of recreating what it once was, he focused on carrying its spirit forward.<\/p>\n
Most afternoons, Alozie is on the floor with staff, greeting kids at the door or helping with homework.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways put the kids first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Under his guidance, the club runs like a heartbeat \u2014\u00a0steady and dependable. <\/p>\n
Each weekday starts with homework help and tutoring, followed by activities that keep both minds and bodies moving: sports in the gym, art projects, cooking lessons and science experiments.<\/p>\n
The club now serves between 60 and 80 children every day. For many, it\u2019s not just an after-school program, but a sanctuary. Through partnerships with ShopRite and local donors, no child leaves hungry.<\/p>\n
Lehigh students also volunteer through initiatives like \u201cFeel Good Fridays\u201d and STEM mentoring programs, a partnership that dates back to the 1950s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe partnerships are vital,\u201d Alozie said. \u201cWe can\u2019t do what we do without them.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of his favorite projects is the club\u2019s community garden, where children plant, water and harvest vegetables used for cooking classes or donated to families.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of our kids, when you ask where vegetables come from, they say the grocery store or the freezer,\u201d Alozie said. \u201cWe teach them to understand that we as human beings have always grown our food.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bethlehem has changed dramatically since Alozie\u2019s childhood, with many working families moving from the club\u2019s original location. When the organization sold its old building in 2015, attendance dropped as accessibility became an issue.<\/p>\n
Alozie and his team worked to rebuild attendance and strengthen partnerships. Collaborations with AmeriHealth, the Bethlehem police department and local businesses helped provide new resources and stability.<\/p>\n
Lisa Ramos, the club\u2019s unit director and a longtime employee, has witnessed that transformation firsthand.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis job isn\u2019t easy, but he knows what he\u2019s doing and it\u2019s all for the kids who come here,\u201d Ramos said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through all the changes, Alozie has kept one goal: to make the club feel like home. Whether it\u2019s a child transitioning from homeschooling, a teen looking for guidance or a family in need of support, he ensures everyone who walks through the door feels the same warmth he once did.<\/p>\n
Now, as the Boys & Girls Club of Bethlehem approaches its 95th anniversary, Alozie finds himself both reflecting and looking ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like a big brother to this community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He measures success not in numbers, but in moments \u2014 the laughter echoing down the hallway, the hugs from alumni who stop by and the look of pride when a student finishes their homework.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, when the last basketball stops bouncing and the final student waves goodbye, Alozie stands by the door, the same way he once entered it as a kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everybody has children, but everybody\u2019s been a child,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can relate to the needs of kids. Even if you don\u2019t like kids, you still want a good future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Basketballs bounce in uneven rhythm, laughter spills down the hall from the art room, and the hum of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5451,153,155,154,523,9728],"class_list":["post-311983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-5-minute-read","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-people","tag-profile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}