Denzel Washington talks about Boys and Girls Club's impact on his life

Denzel Washington has been a member of the Boys & Girls Club since he was six, and he intends to keep that relationship going strong.

Denzel Washington has been a member of the Boys & Girls Club since he was six, and he intends to keep that relationship going strong.

“The club was everything to me,” he said during an interview with ABC News.

“I ran track in those days [for] the Boy’s Club teams,” he said. “I wasn’t the fastest and I was a little shaken up by a new guy that came on to the team. My mentor … he could see that I was a little shaken and he was asking me what was wrong. I said, ‘Well, this guy’s faster than me,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, but he doesn’t know how to run the turns, he doesn’t know how to pass the baton.'”

He went on to say that he took those lessons not only into the real world but also into acting.

“When I became an actor, I was blessed to have tremendous success,” he continued. “[But] I remembered that lesson and decided to work on my master’s, because I remembered him saying your natural ability would only take you so far … Those lessons I learned that day in the club had everything to do with the some of the success I’ve had now.”

Washington continued by saying that he loves “hearing the stories from the youths involved in the program.”

“Being re-inspired by these young people, hearing their stories about what they’ve had to go through,” he said. “It reminds us cynics, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

 

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