- We pledge allegiance to the flag...
- In a corner of a South Milwaukee park
is the city's only building named for an American Indian.
- We are one nation under God...
- It's the Del Porter Pavilion,
home to the Ace Boxing Club.
- Two, three, left.
- Run today by Frank Porter.
- The mission is to provide a healthy,
diverse resource center.
We focus on the at-risk and underprivileged,
but we just do the same to every youth and young adult.
Two.
- What they do is provide
free training in the art of boxing.
- Get in your boxing stance.
One.
Now if he doesn't move, he's gonna get popped.
- With a mix of life lessons.
- Take a look. Everybody look at each other.
Turn around and look at each other.
Diversity is our strength.
That's why it's called 'United States,'
not 'Segregated States.'
- Frank is the son of Ace Boxing Club founder, Del Porter,
and part of long line of boxers and trainers.
- I've got your life in my hands.
You understand me, everybody?
- Yes, Mr. Porter.
- We're going to war in that ring.
When that bell rings, your opponent wants to beat you.
- Welcome to Track 1 of the boxing CD.
This track...
- Do not look around. Be ready.
This is your boxing round.
- One, two, three, four.
- CD: Right straight, left hook.
- Frank: Right straight, left hook.
Say it.
- Right straight, left hook.
- It may seem strange that teaching kids a fighting sport
would keep them from fighting in the streets.
- One, two, three, four.
We have that program--
You've seen the poster in there:
"Drop your guns, and pick up our gloves."
Like our mission:
"It's better to sweat in our gym
than to bleed in the streets."
That's the saying here.
- My son, he have a little bit of...
- Frank "Anger?" - Angerment, yeah.
And now, he no fight no more in school.
- If they have negative energy
that they often find in the streets,
they come in here, use it out on the dummies,
and learn structure and how to handle their anger management.
Left hook, right upper cut.
Left hook. [laughs]
- It's okay. We all make mistakes, Mr.Porter.
- There you go. That's human.
Okay, everybody, face your dummies.
I'm going to repeat the audio CD.
It gives them a sense of someone caring about them
and monitoring them
and helping 'em do the right thing.
And if they make a mistake,
that we're there to help them fix it.
Not... [smacks glove against hand]
- Frank may be forgiving of mistakes
because he knows he's made plenty in his life.
- I was a street person.
That's why these kids can relate to me.
Everybody knows what goes on in the street life.
You become an alcoholic, drug addict, drug dealer.
- Group: Grant me the serenity...
- Leader: to accept the things I cannot control...
- Frank eventually cleaned himself up.
- It took the twelve-step program
to help me change the way I think.
- Frank and his father Del had had a rocky relationship,
but that changed once Frank was in recovery.
He sought his father out.
- I said, "Dad, I need to talk to you."
He said, "What'd I do now, son?"
- I said, "Nothing, Dad, I just need to talk to you."
So I met him the next day. We went into his office.
I just said, "Dad,
I just want you to know that I forgive you the past."
- "Wait a minute, son," he goes.
"This is perfect timing.
I was thinking the same thing last week."
- I said, "Dad, but the key is, as of today,
can you and I start over a new son and father relationship?"
- That's what broke the chain and that's what bonded us.
- Frank was welcomed back into his father's life
and the gym he founded.
- I know he's gone. I know he's gone to glory,
but I miss his relationship.
And I'm proud to carry on his legacy.
I'm proud to carry on the mission.
What happens if I'm not looking? Yes?
I can hear him come out of me when I'm training.
"Get them hands up, son."
Or I'll call one of the kids "son."
It just comes out of me. "Hey, son!"
One, two.
Pull back and hit.
And bring that arm back, like a rubber band.
He doesn't give up on the dream
because he's discovering the champion inside of him.
- It's better to sweat in the gym
than to bleed in the streets.
- mom: I like that. - son: It likes you back.
- [Frank laughs] It likes you back.
My dad wasn't out to make money.
Neither am I.
Neither are the volunteers here.
We're out to make memories.
When you build a legacy,
when you look down, when we pass,
when we're away from this earth a hundred years from now,
you want to look down with your creator and say,
"Look how many people I reached out to."
That's your legacy.
- One, two, three. Go!
- Thanks for the session. Woot, woot!
- There you go.