Fight for Kids Foundation hosts Sweat, Flix & Chill to foster community, connect local youth

King McMillan, founder of the Fight for Kids Foundation, organizes events like Sweat, Flix & Chill to connect youth in the Winooski community. Photo by Ivy Kirby.

Bike after bike piled on the sidewalk on Sept. 16 as almost 70 middle- and high-schoolers came out for the summer’s final “Sweat, Flix, and Chill” event in Winooski.

For six weeks, kids have gathered outside the King James Boxing and Fitness gym on Union Street to take part in a group physical activity, eat a warm dinner, and watch a movie on the lawn as part of the program, which is run by the Fight for Kids Foundation. Winooski resident King McMillan, who heads the foundation and the gym, organizes the events to give local kids something productive to do on Friday nights.

“There are a lot of kids in the area that don’t have somewhere to go after school or in the summertime, and he wants to be able to provide a space for them teaching skills for life and getting along with other people,” said Jennifer Dodge, a friend of King’s. She brought her son out for the fun that Friday.

A chorus of anticipation fills the air every week as attendees wonder what the night’s activities and prizes will be. The activity that night was a jumping contest — with a cash prize. King rolled out a long strip of $1 bills on the grass, and the kids took turns jumping alongside them. However many dollars they landed at, they got to keep. Many left feeling accomplished, with a strip of bills swinging around their necks.

Winooski’s Dahlia Michoma, 13, notched one of the furthest jumps of them all.

Photo by Ivy Kirby.

She thinks the events benefit the community because “we really need some events going on for the kids.”

“At all of the other events, you need to go through obstacles to get to them or pay money,” she said later, adding, “This is very accessible, and you get things out of it.”

Michoma said she wants to see events like this throughout the seasons — and even has ideas about a sledding session in the winter.

The foundation partners with Sarom’s Cafe on Manseau Street, which provided the meal for the evening and left with trays that had been picked clean. The kids gave glowing reviews of the food, offering compliments between mouthfuls.

King is happy with the turnout for these events, which has been around 60 kids each Friday. Many know each other already from school, but the events give them space to bond further and learn. It’s been a lot of work, King said, but it is rewarding to see the kids come out, some from as far as Shelbourne and St. Albans.

King’s ultimate goal is to create a youth center. “Being new to the nonprofit arena, I want to stay focussed on the youth program, getting the youth center open,” King said. “These kids — they need a little bit of guidance, and we have limited space on how many kids we can work with at a time, so we just need to be able to increase that space.”

The nonprofit foundation began in 2009 to foster community and connect local youth with mental and physical health resources.

Before starting the Sept. 16 event, King had all the kids sit down in a circle around him to remind them of the importance of helping their neighbors. And he is leading by example. At the previous gathering, McMillan had handed out new shoes for school to all the children in attendance, many of whom showed off their pair the following Friday.

“Remember, if y’all need something, if y’all want something, come holler at me, or holler at somebody from the foundation,” King told the group, explaining the importance of doing good for each other.

King wants to show the kids that “being good is being cool.”

“I want the kids to be able to acknowledge themselves and who they are and believe in themselves,” he said in an interview afterward, “and know that they are loved, that they’re cared about and that they’re important.”

He said people could help the foundation achieve its goal of starting a youth center through any kind of donation — including time or knowledge.

“It’s not about me doing — it’s we collectively, it’s a community thing,” he said. “We want the kids to be better, and that’s going to make our community better as a whole.”