Club Frontiers helps Philly's African American youth

It is a simple yet weighty milestone, carved through self-reliance.

Over the last five decades, a little-known group of African American men, banded together under the name Philadelphia Club Frontiers International Inc., has quietly raised more than $500,000 in college scholarships for area youth with strong promise but limited means.

On Sunday afternoon, the club will celebrate its 50-year mark and recognize this year's recipients - eight students, some at college - in a service awards event in Center City.

"There are other groups that have more prestige, and title to it," said club president Gregory Stephens. "But this group is strictly about service. Even though our number is small, everybody is willing to work."

The first Frontiers organization was founded in 1936 in Columbus, Ohio, by Nimrod B. Allen. Club history says that since white community-service organizations would not accept black men as members, Allen started his own.

Chapters spread throughout the country, in Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Nashville, primarily as outlets of opportunity for black men. Members proudly called themselves "yokefellows," after the burden that oxen bear through the yoke. Their motto: "Advancement Through Service."

The Philadelphia club, established in 1942, is said to be the second oldest of the 24 nationwide, and the largest. It has sponsored programs on health concerns, business opportunities, education initiatives, and mentoring. But in recent years, the club has struggled with membership and finances.

With this year's scholarships, totaling $5,750, "we just about wiped out our funds," said scholarship committee chairman Warren English, 73, a retired electrical engineer, followed by a chuckle. "But we just felt we couldn't deny them."

The eight student awardees - five graduating seniors and three college students - were chosen based on their high grades, extracurricular activities, community service, and need.

Until three years ago, the scholarships were strictly for high schoolers. But some returned.

"At most colleges," said Stephens, 52, a dentist and West Philadelphia native, "it seems the longer you're there, the more your financial aid decreases. Some of our past awardees were coming back to us, so we had to reach a little deeper in our pockets. We got the students there, so we had to see them through."

Since Donald Hunt graduated from the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, the junior at the Berklee College of Music in Boston has earned $2,000 in Frontiers scholarships. "It just makes me want to keep going at it," said Hunt, 20, on track to graduate a year early in May. "They're black men who just want people like me to hold their ground and be great examples."

The Philadelphia club started during World War II with about 25 members. That number grew to more than 100 during the swell of the civil rights movement, Stephens said. Members created the scholarship program to ensure that African Americans graduating from public high schools had a vehicle to higher education.

Throughout the years, the club has weighed its successes and disappointments. When Stephens joined in 2001, he said, the club had 60 yokefellows. Today, the number is back to roughly 25.

Some past scholarship winners left college after the first year. And every year, the club leaves many applications on the table.

This year, the club gave out three additional scholarships, but the award for college students was cut from $1,000 to $250.

The gala Sunday is seen as a much-needed boost for membership and for funds.

The club will present its annual service awards to three community leaders: Judge Renée Cardwell Hughes, chief executive of the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross; City Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell; and Ken Scott, chief executive officer of Beech Interplex, a community-development corporation in North Philadelphia. The keynote speaker is former Common Pleas Court Judge John Braxton. Tickets cost $60.

There has been talk in years past of cutting some of the club's programs. But somehow, things pull together.

"Money is the limiting factor," said English. "But you don't pity yourself. You just keep going."