Executive Director Charles Clayton said the new facility has given the program space for adding and expanding athletic programs.

“We’ve been able to expand our basketball program,” he said. “Our first- to fourth-grade program, we weren’t able to offer that before, and our fifth through eight program has grown. We have 80 boys in that.”

It also allowed AFES to offer the basketball program to the ladies.

“We were able to restart our girls basketball program,” he said. “We’ve got about 30 girls in that right now.”

The completion of its own gym facility has allowed AFES to not only save money on renting space, it’s also allowed them to generate revenue for the organization’s operations.

“We can run our own tournaments,” Clayton said. “We have our own concessions. It’s starting to become a good funding source.”

The ability to host its own youth basketball tournaments also has a positive economic impact on the local economy.

“Last summer, we had 33 teams here from as far away as Omaha, Wisconsin and Minneapolis and all throughout Iowa,” he said. “They were all staying in hotels.”

Not only do they stay in hotels, he said, but those teams also go shopping, eat in local restaurants, buy fuel and therefore help pump dollars into the local economy.

“It’s a good attraction for Fort Dodge,” he said.

The gym is also rented out to a variety of local teams, organizations and families.

“The Iowa Central Dance Team,” he said. “They rent it on a daily basis. We also have soccer, softball and baseball teams.”

They’ve also hosted large family gatherings such as graduation receptions. The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration is now held in the AFES gym and there’s a monthly family bingo night.

But Clayton isn’t resting on his laurels.

“We’ve got plans for a blues concert and a jazz concert,” he said.

While the athletic programs at AFES have expanded with the new gym, its other programs continue to prosper and grow as well.

AFES has an after-school program and a summer program for students. It also has a mentoring program to match students with successful adult role models and music programs where students can learn guitar, piano or keyboard. It is also working on a drum line program.

Clayton’s nearest goal for the program is to retire the mortgage on the new gym.

“We need to pay off the loan on the gym,” he said. “We are hoping to get 100 people to donate $20 a month. Once we get this paid off, in five years, we would like to build a second building. We need to a least get out of the old building.”

The old building, a former elementary school, would be converted to heated storage space that could be rented by the public.

Clayton is also working on making sure that the AFES program survives past his own tenure.

“Once I die,” he said, “AFES needs to go on for 100 years. I don’t want it to die off if something happens to me.”

AFES was started in 2004 when Clayton and a group of friends were discussing ways to help out youth in the community.

He admits he had no idea at the time how to make it work.

“I didn’t have a clue about nonprofits, grant writing, fund raising or anything,” he said. “The rest of this has all been a blessing from God. I didn’t plan it, didn’t see it coming. I still wake up and wonder how we got it done.”

AFES does not accept federal funding.

“We get zero federal dollars,” he said. “This is a community thing. They, the people of Fort Dodge, do this. Seventy percent of our budget is from Fort Dodge and Webster County.”

He said that community support for AFES continues to be strong.

“Community support has been terrific,” he said. “I don’t think people in Fort Dodge know how support for this program has had a positive effect on their community.”

Clayton would like to expand his program into areas for the students whose main interest isn’t athletics.

“We want to find ways to reach all those nonsports kids,” he said. “We would like to do some plays, maybe musicals.”