Want to teach kids to be responsible? “Make it happen in the gym.”
It’s sage advice from Dr. Tom “Doc” Martinek Sr. – teacher, counselor, mentor, and coach – who recently retired after 47 years in UNCG’s Department of Kinesiology.
As a parting gift, he and his wife, Kathleen, established the Youth Development and Community Engagement Endowment in Health and Human Sciences. The fund will enhance the work of the department’s Project Effort program, an after-school sports and leadership program for underserved children and youth, which Martinek founded nearly three decades ago in partnership with Guilford County Schools.
Martinek is an internationally respected scholar whose early research in psycho-social development was widely recognized as a valuable contribution to exercise and sports science literature. His shift to research about service learning in 1993 made a significant impact on programs specifically designed to develop life skills through physical activity.
For the past 30 years, his work through Project Effort has been modeled throughout the world. Its initial purpose was to give elementary school kids plagued with low grades, office referrals, and school suspensions a chance to participate in a values-based after-school program that would help them channel negative energy in a positive way.