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The first local exchange club was formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1911.

The Exchange Club is America's service club.

From the organization's earliest days, exchange clubs have been serving their communities.

Each year, communities benefit from college scholarships, youth mentoring, and service to the underprivileged.

Tonight, we meet the president of the Exchange Club of Fontana and learn how his organization supports the second largest city in San Bernardino County.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

From Los Angeles.

This is KLCS PBS.

Welcome to Everybody with Angela Williamson, an innovation, Arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, doctor Angela Williamson.

Del Evans is here with us tonight.

Del, thank you so much for being here.

No, no, thank you so much for having me.

Well, we are going to talk about the Exchange Club of Fontana.

But before we do that, I want our audience to get to know you because it's because of your dedication to the community is why you're now leading this organization.

So tell me a little bit about you.

I'll be glad to share a little.

I'm actually originally from Joliet, Illinois, which is about 60 miles, west of, Chicago.

it's a small town.

Most people know it because of the the Blues Brothers.

Joliet.

Jake.

He's coming outside of Statesville, which is a prison in my hometown.

Oh, wow.

Yes.

Okay.

The town was known for was was a prison, but originally from Joliet, Illinois.

I'm the second oldest son of a teen mother.

my mother, Reverend Genevieve Brown, had five kids.

We lived in public housing in a place called the Hill, in Joliet.

And, we also spent some time in Saint Louis and another project, which was, could I go?

I grew up in a house that had domestic violence.

There was a domestic violence there.

And my mom at some point got to the point where she had a she had had enough.

And one day we I always kind of used the time she packed up everything we got on the train and moved to Saint Louis.

so we left turmoil to a place that was probably just as bad can be socio economically, but there was love in the house and my mom always did all she could to, give us exposure and experiences to things that were different than what we saw in the communities that we lived in.

Wow.

So do you think it's your earliest experience is why you are in the community today, and you actually spend time going to schools and talking to young people, but tell us about that.

Well, that all again starts with my mom.

my mother was, again, as I told you, she was a teen mother, but she was active and engaged in everything in our community.

Active, very active in our church.

she got all of us involved in.

Well, my my brother's band wrestling track my sisters in chorus.

So there was always something that we had to do.

Now, not only did mom put us in those programs, she would end up being the leader at our school.

She started the first PTA at the school that we attended.

She was also the president of the Band Parents Association.

of course, very active in the church.

And she also, ran for school board.

She was the first African-American woman to run for school board.

she didn't win.

but she was the first one to run for school board.

And so she was always active in many things.

And so all of myself and my brothers and sister have all kind of picked up that trait, to be engaged and involved in, activities in our communities and in our churches.

And do you think that's the reason why you chose the type of career that you're in now?

There's no doubt.

social services was the time that I spent my most time here, and I actually served as the social services coordinator for the Housing Authority of Joliet.

ironically, the housing authority of Joliet is where we grew up at, and.

Oh, so I had an opportunity to go back there and actually coordinate the after school programs at four different children's sites and, coordinated programs for seniors at the senior sites.

This was, the reason that I really did that is because I had men, like, as I said before, my mom placed us in everything band.

It was Victor Christianity, and Mister Kick in wrestling, it was coach McLaughlin and Coach Ben Marino in boxing and Chuckie Cain in karate.

All of these men's every day.

There was something that we had to do and being involved in.

And so I really, was able to learn how to be able to juggle many things at one time, just like my mom did.

And I always wanted to at some point, even as a younger man, when I actually coached, wrestling team, that always want to give back, just like those men gave back to me.

So I'm trying to be, Reuben Arthur and Mack McLaughlin and all those men that were there have been in my past that have helped me get to where I am today.

And I find it's really interesting about your background is that you are from the East Coast, but you come to California, you moved to Fontana, and you become active right away.

So how do you start to get your foot in the door to the point of where you're at?

president of one of the largest service organizations in that city?

Well, it actually started with, actually, once I left, Illinois, I came to California because of marriage.

my wife, Valerie, Valerie Singleton, Evans.

With that great school together, we actually went to grade school together.

We lived only about a block from each other, but, she her dad was a, very active civil rights.

In civil rights in our town.

His name was, Reverend Isaac Singleton.

In fact, he had Martin Luther King came.

He started, Operation Push with Jesse Jackson.

So very, very engaged and involved in the community.

And at that age, you know, I knew her, but I never did really engage.

And we didn't engage each other until our 40th class anniversary.

And over the phone, we stayed in touch for about two years, and we knew that it was getting serious or serious, whether she was going to move back to Illinois or if I would come to California.

as I think I was set up.

She invited me to come in December.

Oh, yeah.

If you want to visit California in December, especially from the East coast, it.

Was about 20 degrees, 20 degrees when I left Illinois.

When I got to California, it was about 70 degrees.

So the decision was made.

three months later, I moved out to California.

So when I first got here, I did what happened over time in Illinois, I did intentionally when I moved to California.

Let me explain to you what it is that once I got involved with the, I got involved with the Exchange Club in Illinois.

And of course, I was also involved with the Chamber of Commerce, and these were all pretty much as a result of working with the Housing authority of, of Joliet.

And over time, you know, just every time what I found is that you can rise as high as you're willing to volunteer.

So it went with that?

Yeah.

Please rise as high as you're willing to volunteer.

And so normally, if there was a job or something that people wanted to do or to participate in or committee to be on, I would say, yes, I'll do it, yes, I'll do it.

And as a result, I got to meet people that I would have never met had I not been involved in these, these different opportunities to meet and be with people who were leaders in our community, primarily through the Exchange Club.

and so when I was asked to join, and that's what I found to be the case many times, there are several people out there who want to help.

They don't know how, but many times they're just not asked.

Well, and sometimes when you make that ask, you need to be specific.

like, I have a good example of a gentleman who was really active in the military and Americanism, and we have what we call an Americanism committee.

So when I talk to him about, when I talk to them about joining our club and what we do, it's something that they have an interest in and something that they will jump all in and actually do.

And so that's what happens.

I think that people sometimes just need to be asked and not to ask to be volunteer, but to ask them for a specific thing that kind of fits with their skill set is and our chances are better to get people engaged, involved to doing the work that they always want to do.

We just don't know how.

Oh wow.

And when you came to it from Illinois, so you were already part of the Exchange Club.

Fontana already had an exchange club as well, but you've done other things as well.

Did you start right away in the Exchange Club?

Because I've seen you do other things around the community, which I mean, to see you in such a large city that knows that you're moving around and helping every, you know, sister and brother in need.

Well, I had a I had probably one of the first people that I met in town was a gentleman by the name of Charles Jackson.

He's a producer and publisher of a magazine called City Pride.

Now he's originally from he's originally from Compton, where he has a this magazine and in, in Los Angeles.

But he was trying to establish one in Fontana.

And when I met him, he took me around to because he was in the media, he took me around to all these different organizations, other what I call resources, what I truly consider myself is to be a bridge between what somebody needs and to get him to that thing.

And so it worked out perfectly with all of the introductions.

He began to make, for me, that I could again become that resource that I was back at home for people who have a need.

And still he can tell you where to go to help you find, how to get that help.

So that gives me great pleasure.

And so with this introduction in learning the different organizations in Fontana, why did you choose to stay at the Exchange Club of Fontana and move through the ranks?

Because now you're moving high, because you're volunteering.

We now understand.

I don't think I'll ever forget that.

Say so.

Why choose the Exchange Club of Fontana?

Because I know there's so much you're doing.

Because somebody asked me.

Yeah.

What's happening with Sonja Dawkins?

She was actually at that time working at the Fontana Herald News, and we had met on a couple of occasions, and I hadn't quite found where Exchange Club was.

I knew it was here, but I hadn't really gone out to reach out.

And she invited me to a meeting, which is what we try to do, and then asked me if I would join.

At that time, she was the president elect.

and so when I, when I jumped on, I had been involved in exchange in Illinois for probably about 15 years.

And so when I came here, it's quite different.

Like you say, there are two different cultures, two different.

Please explain that.

Well.

In, when I got here to California, what I found with the Exchange Club here is that they focused primarily on raising money for scholarships for youth.

But now the Exchange Club, National Exchange Club really has four pillars.

One is community service, service to youth, service to our seniors, and then child abuse, the prevention of child abuse, which is our national project.

Now, when I talk about when I was a kid and how the house I grew up in, that kind of might explain to you why I have a passion to to help kids who could be in violence situations.

but that that difference that they had here.

Because back in Illinois, we can only really do things on the inside during the winter.

But there's so many things that you can do here in California.

And I had some ideas.

And fortunately, unfortunately, some of the members have, kind of listened and said, look, we can do this.

And, we've been we've been able to really grow our club since, since I've been a member, probably about 50%, even after going through, through covet, we've grown it about 50% to what it was.

Now, I always tell people we're going to have the fastest growing club in the country simply because we were probably the smallest.

So you don't have to grow big when you only have 8 or 9 members.

You can grow 100% if you get 8 or 9 more.

And so that's my goal.

I figure the more people we have, the more that we can do and give back to the community.

And that's interesting that you said that is small, but you serve such a large city.

So how do you make sure that your organization, fulfills your mission, your four pillars, and continues to grow at the same time?

Well, the first thing, the first thing that I found again is that members are important, but volunteers are just important, or sometimes more than, so volunteers, during the times that we have our major events where we need volunteers now, many times these are agencies or organizations that we support, you know, financially, in some or not, they just actually when we need the help, we'll make the call for it.

And hopefully if they come into the room just like you did, come, come to one of our meetings here, one of our speakers, and say they like what we're doing.

And boom, we try to we try to get people recruited as soon as we can.

And after we get the room recruited, we give them a job.

You know, we don't want person to say that if you wanted me to join a club, but you don't have anything for me to do after 2 or 3 months, they say, well, they don't even need me so intentionally.

what we do now is we identify what their interest is and put them on a committee so they can go to work and help us do this work.

We are getting ready to take a break.

And when we come back, I want to talk about some of the activities that you're currently working on and how that impacts this city.

But before we do that, one more time, tell us the importance of you can go as high as when you volunteer.

I want to get I think it's so.

High that says you can rise as high as you're willing to volunteer.

So because generally, volunteering is counterintuitive to volunteer, especially to join a service club.

And I understand that because I had the same feeling when I first joined, is that you want me to pay you to join your club and then volunteer?

And I say, yes, that's kind of exactly what we do with those who have short vision, where they don't see all the different benefits that come from volunteering.

And maybe I can share a bit of that and how the Exchange Club is not just a we're about actually doing things in our community.

We are also about exchanging ideas and information to grow our own personal businesses, as well as we grow our club and our community.

Perfect way to end our first segment together.

And so when we come back, we are going to talk about that.

All right.

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It's really good.

Thank you so much for that excellent first segment.

And you introduce the Exchange Club in the first segment.

But now I want to actually talk a little bit about the activities you have going on and how important they are to the community.

So let's.

Start there.

I'll be glad to.

actually, today, today, actually, there's a, our district convention which takes place in Irvine there currently right at about 30 clubs in California.

There were several more in the past.

And that's kind of going to be my charge moving forward.

I'm currently the, president elect for the California Nevada District, Exchange Club.

So at the end of June, I'll be taking on that role, as a leadership at that level.

And again, can rise as high as you're willing to volunteer.

But congratulations.

That's a that's a huge commitment.

But what you're trying to do is keep this organization strong and expand.

Right.

That's what we've got to do, in order to survive.

right now, all service clubs are losing members because of, degeneration just has not really been introduced to it or they've not been asked.

so the major projects that we do in Fontana, are our Christmas parade, which we've been doing for I think it's about 16 years.

It's actually in the city charter that we actually do the Christmas parade every year.

for it, we also have what's called Fontana Days, which starts in May.

this year we have our parade, which is the first weekend in May, May 6th.

And at the end of that parade, we'll have a car show.

it comes back to the city center and we'll have a car show there.

following that, in the first weekend in June, we have our Fontana Days carnival.

It's a four day carnival.

Last year, of course, we had to because of Covid.

We didn't have it for two years, but last year we had over 40,000 people come out to the carnival over four days, to to enjoy the event.

And so we were able to with the money that we raised, primarily we have like $40,000 to the local high schools, and we were able to add two charter schools now this year that we're going to also be giving, giving out gifts to we've got our 70th anniversary, which is actually coming up in March 29th.

I got a call yesterday, not long after I heard from you from the national president of the Exchange Club, who's going to be our special guest, Sierra Lakes Parkway in Fontana on March 29th.

On that, they also will be honoring one of our longtime members with a gift that's called, I'm sorry, on the award.

That's called The Book of Golden Deeds is the highest award given out to Exchange Club members.

And that's going to go to a long time member of the Exchange Club and now the county supervisor for San Bernardino, Jesse Armendariz.

Oh, wow.

Well, you know, you mentioned something when you're talking about this, how you really want to have as your mission and legacy to expand this and get more chapters.

But you mentioned that people just don't know how.

So how can we teach that next generation, the idea of service and how to serve in your community, how can we do that?

Well, actually trying to do that and going to do that through exchange, the exchange Club has called what they call the junior an Excel club for high schools.

And then there's also a junior exchange for grade school.

Now, right now we don't have the capacity this year on my radar to actually do a grade school.

But we are working right now with two high schools to start two high school chapters of exchange.

Of course, the first way that we get them is that they come and they can volunteer at events that we do, but the goal of this club is that they select their own charity or their own project that they want to do, and they actually put all those things together with our guide.

What our guidance and support, but they actually learn how to put together volunteer programs in high school.

But also you mentioned something to and this was advice I received years ago, and you can tell me if this is true or not.

But in our careers, we've all been laid off at a time or two, and in one time I was laid off.

Someone suggest it?

You don't go to get a job, but what you need to do is volunteer, because that gets you in the community and you are actually when you're giving back, that gives you positive energy so that you don't you're not stressed.

I mean, how do you feel about that?

I know it to be true or I expect it to be true, is that giving you shall be given until you pressed down, shaken together something given to you.

So actually believe in networks.

is that if we give without expecting something in return, it'll come back.

Now, at some point, some people are taking advantage, and I know the difference.

I can tell the difference between someone who's taking advantage and somebody who's really taking the help and helping them utilize you know, help them to make their lives better.

Which is ultimately our goal is to identify, identify where the problems is and then try to find the resources to try to address it.

of course, the work that we do with child abuse prevention, of course, is not is not hands on for us.

It's us supporting an agency that actually does that type of work.

our weekly meetings to try to make exchange relevant to people in our weekly meetings.

I have kind of going back to something that was a tradition with the exchange, and that's to have guest speakers like we had with yourself, with the mayor, Mayor Nettle Warren, she spoke.

We've had our police chief come and speak.

So we have engaging, engaging speakers that can come in, let us know things that just that sometimes the community you know about it before the community doesn't see.

I'm nosy like that.

I want to know what's happening when and who's putting it on.

so I can.

See that's a sign of a great leader, that you have to be somewhat nosy.

That's a sign of a great leader.

What's out there?

Oh, wow.

Well, we're.

Believe it or not, we're almost done with our time today, but I do not want us to finish our conversation without you letting us know how we can continue to support the Exchange Club, not only just in Fontana, but now that I know that you are going to be president elect of California, Nevada sounds like you're interested in getting more chapters, things like this.

So please let us know.

How can we support this on the city side and on the state side?

You know, probably the best thing.

It generally takes about 15 people.

And I'm thinking to 15 people to start to actually start a club, to charter a club.

And the best way to find out about exchange clubs is to go to the National Exchange Club.

Dot org, and it'll have all the information about our different projects.

And also it will also show where the clubs are, throughout the, throughout the area.

But California, considering the size of our state and Nevada, we are way behind on the number of exchange clubs.

And that has happened over time and again.

Over time, we can rebuild those.

I'm working with.

as I was telling you about Charles, Charles Jackson with the City Pride magazine working with him because he's from Compton.

He knows people in Compton.

And that's a target area that I'd like to try to glue the club started at.

And then it would be really up to those clubs to determine what's important for their community.

Because every community, every community is different.

And you can't do A11 size fits all.

You come in and find out what is the interest in that community that a circle of business people, or just regular professional people wanted to support their community for?

And we work very closely with our city government.

in fact, we partner with us on our major events, our parades.

We can do those things if we didn't have the support of the city and the Community Services department and the senior center and all those things, options that they offer to us to start there and then to try to build from that.

But there are again, like over 600 clubs in the, in the, in the United States with about 18,000 members.

But I just want to point out that the Exchange Club is the only domestic service club in the country.

The other those that you might say, the Rotary International, Mint International, Kiwanis International, thanks.

For educating people.

Local.

Yes.

Keeping an exchange.

Well, and you talked about these four pillars and then you said based on your city, the city can decide which one is probably the most important for them.

But what I find really interesting is that I've never heard of a service club that takes its mission on with child abuse.

How did that happen?

That's so interesting.

I want to talk about that before we finish our.

I'm not exactly sure, but I believe it is.

In 1976, one one that the president at that time said that this was something that we should take on as a mission, that we would address this issue.

And so we've partnered with child abuse centers throughout the throughout the country that actually come to a national convention to see what's working in those areas, what's working in their areas.

And for that group of people who do that work to actually come together, and sometimes just to debrief and de-stress, because we've had some keynote speakers, like our our last national convention, she was actually a judge, a judge in South Carolina, that told us, you know, stories that it's just hard to really listen to, that is actually happening with children.

we spoke with the chief of police.

I was going to tell you this earlier, and and I asked him, what is child abuse like in Fontana?

He says, well, the reporting is down, but that could just be because kids are not in school and the mandated reporters don't know what's going on.

So we suspect that child abuse, the numbers have risen.

But because people are kind of inside and not seeing each other, we're not hearing it.

And so it's it's really our opportunity.

It's really a national and our opportunity to to get the word out that there are resources out there and available.

and there's some parenting classes that probably need to take place, you know, because some people are just doing what was done to them and they think that that's the right thing to do.

So until you kind of get on a little nudge and get on the right track, you just perpetuate these things that have going on from generation to generation.

And I love when you talked about generation to generation.

I see with what you're telling me with the Exchange Club and then also locally in the city, the exchange called the Fontana.

What you're doing with your programs and services that you are changing generation to generation for a positive outcome.

So my my final question to you before we end our conversation is that based on what you're doing and what you're about to do, what do you see as your legacy, not only in the city of Fontana, but statewide of what you want to do with this organization.

Or with the organization?

You know?

Well, probably the first thing that I'm going to do is to get the organization to recognize Martin Luther King Day as a national day of service.

Oh, and see again and again.

Many times people don't see a problem because they look through different lenses.

And, I don't know if I share this with you, but I'm the first African-American male president of the Exchange Club of Fontana.

That's in 70 years.

And I will be the first African-American male president of the California, Nevada district.

So the the the clock is ticking.

But a lot of times if you're not in the room, if a certain perspective is not in the room is not seen, it's not because of a prejudice.

I truly believe that.

It's not because of race, because I just don't know.

Because people just don't know.

Now why don't you know when you still have a problem?

In that day we got another issue.

But right now I think that that's going to be a, that's going to be a major thing that I'm working on with, with, with the, with the local folks to know that this should be we need to recognize it as a national holiday, but to also get to more black and brown people engaged and involved in doing this kind of service work, to know that you'll meet people that you wouldn't know otherwise, and you make connections and build a relationship that you wouldn't otherwise.

I didn't share this with you, but the first I was a part of the first group of kids who were bussed, in 1968, we were bussed from our hometown to to a school, from the projects to what was at that time an all white school.

That was really the first time I had been around white people personally without seeing them on TV.

Now, at the time, I didn't want to go, but as I reflect back, it really helped me tear down some of the racist attitudes that we had in our household based on people we didn't even know.

And so as a result, now I see that same thing happening in meetings that I walk into now with the Exchange Club, where I might be the first African-American male that they've sat down with or actually know.

And so some of my perspectives may be different, but after they sit back and take a look at it, I think it's going to help us all move forward together.

Wonderful.

I loved our conversation.

Thank you so much, Dale and you definitely are to be admired.

I love what you're doing not only in the city, but in our state and continuing this legacy.

So thank.

You.

And I'll take just one other thank you to my lovely wife for allowing me to do do this work and being at my side and trying to make a difference in the community that we live in.

Thank you.

Lovely.

The white.

Okay, so I said that to her too.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you for joining us on everybody with Angela Williamson.

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