Now, after 35 years as the executive director, Wilkins will step down in May. But not before the organization fetes her with a celebration following its big parade Saturday.
Wilkins is modest about the work she’s done to help expand the youth sports program over the years — the tens of thousands of students who have passed through the program, the millions of dollars raised. She’s helped lead the NYO from a football-centric program with a few hundred boys to one that has nearly 5,000 children sign up each year for football, baseball and basketball, as well as girls’ basketball, softball and cheerleading.
Leaving the NYO, at 75, is bittersweet, she said. Over the years, the group has become a community of friends.
“It is my social life. I’m blessed to be a part of these families,” she said. “I thought I’d put my head on my desk one day and die here. I’m going to have to close a door and open a window.”
As the group’s first emeritus board member, Wilkins expects to stay involved with NYO, which she said has been “a thrill.” Over the years, she has smiled with 4-year-old athletes who couldn’t tell whether they won or lost their games, and watched some of the students who got their start in her program move on to big-league careers. She’s seen children grow up and bring their children back to the fields, and alumni without kids sign up to coach.
“I get a lump just talking about it, even,” she said.
Former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson once told her NYO was “the best volunteer situation in the city, with the exception of the symphony,” she said.
Mark Croswell, the president of NYO’s board of directors, said Wilkins’ ease with volunteers is her biggest strength. He described her as magnetic, and said she had a skill for interacting with people like none he’d seen before.
“Her ability to bring you in, put you to work without you even knowing it….” he said. “She cares so much for the organization.”
Wilkins said she’s worked hard to ensure the programs offer something for everyone. For her, it’s been a utopia, even as there have been challenges like a drop in participation in the football program as parents grow concerned about the effect of concussions. She has worked hard to ensure players are taught proper blocking and tackling so that children can continue to play, safely.
Her only regret, Wilkins said, is that with the exception of one grandson who played basketball for a year, her own grandchildren did not participate in the NYO programs.
“Would you believe I have four granddaughters, all of whom are soccer players, and we don’t have it?” she said. “It would have been nice.”
The Northside Youth Organization will celebrate the career of retiring executive director Jane Wilkins at the Opening Day ceremonies for baseball and softball on Saturday. The ceremony will be held around noon in a tent in the parking lot at 140 West Wieuca Road Northwest in Atlanta. Anyone who has been involved with NYO is welcome to attend.
HTHC Notes: NYO is one of my very dear clients. I will miss working with Jane.
