The heart of the Boys & Girls Club

The staff at the Boys & Girls Club of Western Nevada loves - and misses - Thomas Fultz so much they joke about creating a life-size photo of the 18-year-old to keep him around.

Over the past year, the U.S. Navy has swept the 2004 Carson High School graduate out of the hands of the Boys & Girls Club to a boot camp near the Great Lakes in Illinois to Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi and finally to at least three years in Sosabo, Japan.

Fultz, 18, is physically gone from the club, but his touch remains enough behind that the 15 staff members unanimously voted him its youth of the year.

"He truly is the heart of the club," said Diane McCoy, interim executive director, Wednesday morning sitting near the young man attired in a dark Navy uniform. "He has been such a phenomenal young man. All the kids look up to him. He's an excellent role model."

Fultz is on Navy leave until Feb. 20. His time home in Carson has been spent visiting the club and practicing his youth of the year speech. He leans back in a chair at the club like he belongs there and recalls his first visit some five years ago.

"I was 13, and in my eighth-grade year," he said. "I was living at the Plaza Motel. There's not really any kids there. My mom sent me here to make some friends."

That he did, and he soon became known as someone to resolve conflict, discourage destructive behavior, and help where needed.

"He's just one of those kids who's a leader," said Zane Cole, athletic director for the club. "As soon as you see him, you know he's a leader. He is what this club represents."

Fultz joined various leadership programs at the club, assisting staff members in their tasks, playing sports with students and staff, attending leadership conferences, filling in when staff was out, and giving spontaneous tours of the place to interested parents and children. He came to the club every day after school about 2 p.m. and stayed several hours until about 7 p.m.

"He's the type of kid who will bend down and pick up trash when a thousand other kids would walk over it," McCoy said.

In upcoming months, Fultz will compete by video from Japan against six youth of the year from other Boys & Girls Clubs in Nevada. Gov. Kenny Guinn will announce the winner at a legislative breakfast April 1.

"I think it's awesome," he said about receiving the award. "Seriously, all the people who work here work hard, and I'd never think I'd get it."

Fultz is not sure what he'll do when he gets out of the Navy.

"I do, I miss this place," he said. "But I need to go out and see the world."

n Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.