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BUILDING ON A TRADITION
Lockers from lockup
Sunday, August 20, 2006Story by Bob Fortuna
Plain Dealer Reporter
Mansfield -- Glenville residents have shared a special affection for its neighborhood Tarblooders football program since Ted Ginn Sr. became coach in 1996. This summer, the Tarblooders' reach has extended 80 miles south on Interstate 71 -- to the Mansfield Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison that houses more than 2,250 individuals serving time for crimes ranging from drug charges to murder.
Ten inmates from the prison's carpentry shop have been building 100 plywood lockers for Glenville since the start of August. The units are the centerpiece of the locker room renovation Ginn is leading and hopes to complete in the next month.
The Tarblooders open their season at 1 p.m. Saturday against Mentor in the first game of a Charity Game doubleheader at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Each locker is made from three-quarter-inch plywood that is stained and coated with polyurethane for a smooth, satin finish. They will stand 6 feet high, 30 inches wide and 24 inches deep. The first batch was shipped and installed Wednesday.
Their arrival is a dream come true for Ginn, who got the idea in 2001 during a recruiting trip to Notre Dame with a few players.
“I took a picture of [Notre Dame’s] locker room because I wanted my team to, one day, have lockers just like theirs,” Ginn said. “It’s taken a little bit of waiting, but we’re finally getting them.
“And it’s touching to know our football family will now extend to Mansfield.”
The project hits home for Lawrence Goodrich, 36, who is serving a 10-year term for burglary.
The New Jersey native moved to Cleveland in 1998 and lived a stone’s throw from Glenville High School.
Goodrich never met Ginn, but he has become familiar with the Tarblooders football program and other high school sports in Greater Cleveland by reading newspapers and watching television.
“I feel good and proud, being that I lived there and being able to do something for the kids,” said Goodrich, who used to work framing houses before his incarceration.
“I know they have a good program at Glenville, and if we can be any contribution to that, I’m all for it.
“From what I’ve read and heard, Mr. Ginn runs a good program and keeps his boys in line.” The $11,100 locker project is funded by The Ginn Foundation. Ginn also had the locker room floor resurfaced and the walls painted. He estimates the total cost to his foundation will be $18,000.
The old lockers, the size of ordinary school lockers, did not fit helmets or shoulder pads. That equipment stacked on top of lockers or lay scattered across the floor. Earlier this summer, Tarblooders players tore out the beat-up lockers. Wednesday, some players helped haul the first shipment of units into the locker room.
Meanwhile, the construction project is Mansfield’s first involving a Cleveland school.
“Our workshops have done projects all over the state, but we try to stay as close to this region as possible,” said Sally Glover, whose duty as deputy of special services entails supervising community service workshops. “Warden [Stuart] Hudson is very committed to having the inmates do constructive things in the community.”
Much of the credit for the new lockers goes to Ginn’s longtime friend Bennie Kelly, who is the warden at the Lorain Correctional Institution. Earlier this summer, Kelly told Ginn he’d make sure the lockers were built if the materials were obtained. Kelly, along with Lorain Correctional Institution colleagues Terry Vandergrift and Mike Mienke, traveled to Glenville to take measurements and get a general sense of the locker room.
They drafted a blueprint and estimated each locker would cost $160.
“I knew we didn’t have the facilities at Lorain, so I called the central office for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections and was told that kind of work was done at Mansfield,” Kelly said. “And I knew Warden Hudson from his days when he was a deputy warden at Lorain.”
Kelly faxed the blueprints to Mansfield’s prison, where inmate Richard Mascol reviewed the plans and, after some tweaking, reduced the cost to $111 per locker. Kelly, Vandergrift and Mienke selected the materials at James Lumber in Strongsville and had the supplies delivered to the prison.
“This is the only place I know of on this type of scale in the state of the Ohio where people can give back to society,” said Mascol, 48, who grew up in Parma and is incarcerated for murder.
Officer Wayne Brown supervises the prison’s community services workshops and has been overseeing the construction project.
“Each of the inmates [has] certain duties on the project, and they know what they’re doing,” Brown said. “They’re good carpenters.”
The plywood is cut into sections and as the joints of each section are glued and screwed together, the lockers begin to take shape.
Trim is applied in another section, as is wood filler and plugs.
The plugs are then sanded down and sent to the finish room, where the sections are stained, sand-sealed and sprayed with polyurethane. The locker is complete after the coat hooks, hinges and backs are applied. Each unit contains a storage chest that also serves as a seat.
“These lockers are well-made and sturdy,” said inmate George Pamer, who previously lived in Barberton and Wadsworth and was convicted mostly of drug crimes. “I’ve been a carpenter all my life, and I wouldn’t have made these lockers any other way.
“I’m sure the kids at Glenville will love them.”
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
[email protected], 216-999-4665
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Warden and coach team up with idea
Sunday, August 20, 2006 Bob Fortuna
Plain Dealer Reporter
Bennie Kelly's relation ship with Glenville foot ball coach Ted Ginn Sr. dates back to when his son played football at Bedford High School. Brandon Kelly is now a 6-4, 255-pound junior defensive end at the University of Wisconsin.
"I knew Ted took his players to tour college campuses," said Bennie Kelly, the warden at the Lorain Correctional Institution who got the locker construction project under way by suggesting inmates in Mansfield's carpentry program could build the units. "When I'd bump into Ted at [high school] football and basketball games, we'd talk about how he was planning the college visits."
Their friendship grew tighter in the spring of 2005 when Bennie Kelly accompanied his younger son, Benjamin, then a junior at Bedford, on one of Ginn's tours. Each summer, Ginn takes elite high school players in the area to college camps where they showcase their skills in front of recruiters. Benjamin Kelly is now a 5-8, 180-pound freshman cornerback at Air Force.
Bennie Kelly roomed with Ginn during the 10-day venture, officially titled the Ted Ginn Road to Opportunity Football Combine Bus Tour.
"I got to see the real Ted Ginn during that time," Bennie Kelly said. "It was 3 in the morning, we were in Iowa City, Iowa, and Ted's cell phone was ringing off the hook.
"It was some of his ex-players calling him for advice. When Ted says he's got an extended family, he's not kidding. He's in it for the kids, and he wants to make a difference in their lives."
Bennie Kelly knows football can be a vehicle to carry out one's dreams.
"I had dreams of playing professional football," said the Mississippi native who moved to Cleveland when he was 15. "I played at Shaw High School, then went to the University of Cincinnati. I woke up one morning and realized I wasn't big enough, strong enough or fast enough to play in the NFL.
"So I got my bachelor's degree and made a life for myself and family. I've always wanted to give back like Ted is doing, and this is a good way for me to do it."
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Locker project a privilege for inmates
Sunday, August 20, 2006 Bob Fortuna
Plain Dealer Reporter
Mansfield
- The in mates building Glenville football team's new lockers work in Mansfield Correctional Institution's carpentry shop.
The nonprofit community service center provides a simulated factory atmosphere. All of the materials and tools are donated. The 10 inmates have earned the right to work in the carpentry program.
"These inmates are hand-picked because it's a privilege," deputy of special services Sally Glover said. "These selected inmates need to show they can handle their business and stay out of trouble."
Inmates must have basic carpentry skills, and they need to have served at least one year ticket-free. A ticket is a conduct violation ranging from disrespect toward a staff member to lying, fighting or assault.
The inmates earn about $30 each month, warden Stuart Hudson said. They generally work five, six-hour shifts each week.
Although they cannot leave the facility unless it's for a medical trip, projects benefiting the outside community are common.
"We're scheduled to refurbish one of the more run-down districts in Mansfield in hopes of drawing more middle-income families," said officer Wayne Brown, who supervises the prison's community services workshops.
Houses will be built inside the prison then taken apart, one wall at a time, so the outside crew can go to the site with the city crew and put the units together.
"The minute we walk through this [carpentry shop] door, every day, we are no longer inmates," said Brian Keyes, 44, a former Elyria resident who was incarcerated five years ago for sex crimes. "We're community service employees, and it's a beautiful thing. Anytime the public can get a different perspective of what inmates think and feel, it's a perfect example of rehabilitation."
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By the numbers
Sunday, August 20, 2006
6
Days until Glenville's season begins.
10
inmates in Mansfield Correctional Institution's carpentry program.
72
Inches each locker stands.
100
Plywood lockers being constructed for Glenville's football team.
111
Dollars each locker cost in materials.
11,100
Dollars for the locker construction project.
18,000
Dollars for the entire locker room renovation.
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