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Sunday Conversation: Lightning VP Keith Harris strikes a chord for the Boys & Girls Clubs

 
Keith Harris, right, poses with wife Monica Williams Harris, 2-year-old son Miles Harris, and oldest daughter Alicia McDowell. Harris, the Lightning vice president of human resources, also has two other daughters, Krista and Camryn, who are students at the University of South Florida. Photo courtesy of Keith Harris.
Keith Harris, right, poses with wife Monica Williams Harris, 2-year-old son Miles Harris, and oldest daughter Alicia McDowell. Harris, the Lightning vice president of human resources, also has two other daughters, Krista and Camryn, who are students at the University of South Florida. Photo courtesy of Keith Harris.
Published Jan. 21, 2018

Keith Harris fondly looks back on some memorable days from his Tampa upbringing when he worked as a lifeguard at a pool next to a Boys & Girls Club. ¶Whenever it rained, he watched as the kids retreated to the safe haven of the club. They entered into a building that not only provided shelter from nature's storms, but protected them from life's storms.

"They had counselors, adults who supervised these kids and took the time to pour love and guidance into them," Harris said.

Now Harris, the Tampa Bay Lightning vice president of human resources, serves as the first African-American chairman of the 90-year-old Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay. He's helping the organization chart new initiatives and extend its mission of touching the lives of more than 20,000 kids in Hillsborough and Pasco Counties.

Harris, 52, recently spoke with Tampa Bay Times columnist Ernest Hooper about the organization's 2018 outlook, juggling the demands of work and philanthropy and the joy of raising his 2-year-old son with his wife, attorney Monica Williams-Harris, at a later stage in life.

You're involved in a number of philanthropic efforts, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay. What drives you to be so active?

When you have the boss (Lightning owner Jeff Vinik) sending a clear message to his staff that he encourages and wants to see you involved in community activities, it makes my job as head of HR a lot easier to say this is stuff we're going to give our attention to. We don't have to ask permission to do it. He encourages it. We do it. That's opened the door for me to utilize such a high-profile brand and platform to impact my community. I'm a Tampa native. The point is not lost on me that they see me as one of the few African-American executives in this community, and with a brand like the Lightning, I'm challenged to say, "How can I utilize it to help?" So one of the things that drives me is that it's professionally supported.

The other thing that drives me is that I've come full circle professionally. I've always had offices where I traveled around to multiple sites, but as I've gotten older, what I've learned is that all you really have is the community that you live in. You can try to change the world by making philanthropic contributions, you can align yourself with all manner of initiatives, but at the end of the day, stick to the things that you care about that are close to you.

It's about having roots in a community, right?

Absolutely. I've got deep ties in the community. And it's about your interests. Cancer has affected my family so one of the ways I honor my mom's legacy is to try to fight cancer. There's the George Edgecomb Society that's been formed at the Moffitt Cancer Society. There's education, which was important to my dad, so my brother and I started a small scholarship fund. So it's the things that are close to me, including the Boys & Girls Club.

The Boys & Girls Club is realizing some new successes in Town 'N Country, in Wimauma, in Winston Park. Tell me about those successes.

The demographics of this community are rapidly changing. As Tampa grows, we know there's a strong drive towards turning our inner cities into vibrant hubs of business and commerce, living and working spaces, to improve the quality of life for the folks who are there and to bring in higher levels of income. What that has a tendency to do is drive people from the underserved population farther out, to the outskirts of the city and to the county. The club's philosophy is let's make sure we don't forget those kids. If those kids have started to sprawl, let's get the clubs close to them. That explains why communities like Clair-Mel and Wimauma and Dover have become hubs of club activity.

Lightning owner Jeff Vinik has been particularly supportive of the Winston Park Boys and Girls Club in Clair-Mel, even helping it overcome a damaging fire. Now the NHL will lend support this week as part of its All-Star Game legacy. How big a deal is that for the Boys & Girls Club.

It's huge. We've long seen the connection between sports and entertainment and community improvement. If you take the ideals and the mission of the Boys & Girls Club, it's not just an after-school, after-care program. It's a captive audience of kids where we get to have them play, work on school stuff and pour life skills into them. What better way to do that than using a brand as cool and exciting as Lightning hockey to be that draw. I think Mr. Vinik understands that.

While the outreach of the clubs is helping new communities, there has been conversation about potentially transitioning services at the West Tampa Club. Tell me about the challenges involved with that decision.

Our priority is and always has been to serve youth that need us the most. For 90 years, the Boys & Girls Clubs has had a strong presence in the West Tampa community; serving young people that are now some of the most prominent business leaders in the city. But, as the city continues to grow, neighborhoods are experiencing major transitions and West Tampa is one such community. We have experienced a decline in youth served at this particular Club and are now challenged with the task of deciding if the need in that area is as big as it once was. Though we are committed to serving the families that remain, we also have to keep in mind the resources available to continue operations. Ideally, we want to be available for every young person in every community. And as we continue to look at the broader scope of our focus and mission, we will take a hard look at every conceivable future plan for that site. For now though, we are open, five days a week, in West Tampa, and are serving the families there.

It's a matter of efficiency?

It absolute is. Sometimes we make these decisions that are tough decisions, obviously, in the public's eye, but we have not gone about it arbitrarily at all. It follows a pretty careful study on geography and demographics and economic realities. That's really the driving force behind the decision. We have to build and allocate resources to where the bulk of our kids are located.

And it doesn't reflect on the club's overall commitment to the community, right?

Our mission is to serve those in the community. Even though I talk about brick in mortar, the reality is we draw very soft lines around which Clubs serve communities. Those lines aren't so rigid that kids outside the immediate community can't get involved. We're never going to close our doors based on a kid's zip code.

In adddition to all you have going on, you and your wife have a 2-year-old son. What's that like?

I probably should have started with that (laughs). We decided to do this a little later in life, so he's really changed my focus from looking past child rearing to rolling around on the floor and tossing the ball again. That's had a huge impact and we're having a ball. I have daughters, they're all adults now. They still need some attention now and then, but clearly our son is our primary focus .

Sunday Conversation is edited for brevity and clarity. Contact Ernest Hooper at ehooper@tampabay.com. Follow @hoop4you.