A Division I football coach, Oregon State’s JaMarcus Shephard, is used to speaking to crowds. Still, he said he gets nervous at the podium outside of his job. 

But he had a lot in common with his audience. 

Shephard was the keynote speaker for the Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis’ 28th annual Celebrate Kids Breakfast on Thursday morning, which took place at the organization’s Circle Boulevard campus. 

During his speech, Shephard shared that he is an alumnus of the Boys & Girls Club, benefitting from the organization as he grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

Thursday’s event, which featured several speakers from the organization, including the 2025 and 2026 “Youth of the Year” winners, hosted a gym full of community members in a fundraising effort for the club. 

Shephard repeatedly mentioned the impact the organization had on him and others. 

“I would venture to guess that I probably ate somewhere in the neighborhood of a third, or maybe 40%, of my meals growing up at the Boys & Girls Club,” he said. 

Shephard shared that he grew up living with his grandmother, as his father was incarcerated and his mother battled a drug addiction. 

“She never got past the eighth grade, and so her education level wasn’t that high either in the home,” Shephard said of his grandmother, whom he credited with motivating him academically. “There were times when the lights would get turned off in my home. … Oftentimes, we just didn’t have food to eat at home, legitimately.”

He emphasized he didn’t want sympathy. “Shoot, I’m the head football coach at Oregon State University. How about that?” he said. “I tell you because I want you to know that you’re making a difference in (kids’) lives, and anything is possible.”

Lauren Mendoza, BGCC’s director of development, said the event was open to the community, while club board members and sponsors filled tables as hosts. That led to a mix of longtime BGCC donors as well as people still learning about the organization in the audience. 

“We did have a few people that just came, which we love,” Mendoza said. 

One of those people was Dick Maurer, a retired lumber broker and former Oregon State Football running back in the 1970s. 

Maurer said he eats lunch once a month with a group that includes Dick Thompson, a BGCC honorary board member. “He says, ‘You need to go to this event,’” Maurer recalled. “And then we find out that JaMarcus was going to be our speaker. I said, ‘Heck yeah, we might as well.’” 

“Everything today was informative,” he said. “(The Youth of the Year winners) both spoke, and you know, that’s pretty powerful stuff.” 

Jan Ames, another community member, said, “Goodness, I don’t even know – long time,” when asked how long she had been supporting the club. “I want to support the kids,” she said. 

Shephard said that learning about the BGCC’s efforts to provide youth with dental care – the Corvallis location contains a free, two-chair clinic with X-ray machines and diagnostic equipment. – almost brought him to tears. 

“I didn’t go to a dentist until I was well into my teenage years,” he said, “and the effects of that stay with me today.” He pulled a clear aligner from his suit pocket. “I missed a tooth right here. I wear this because my front two teeth have been crooked for years, OK?

“Some people, they might hear back just say, ‘Ah, that’s just cosmetic stuff,’ you know? But I just think it’s bigger than that. It’s about confidence, it’s about health, and it’s about dignity. Sometimes people take those things for granted until they live without them.”

Mendoza said that the BGCC has other important programs, such as family and mental health clinics in the Corvallis campus, as well as a literacy program, which she said is her favorite part of the organization. 

However, she said government cuts in education and healthcare funding have resulted in more competition in acquiring federal and state grants, as well as less money to go around. 

The BGCC will feel those cuts the most in its literacy program. 

In her speech Thursday, BGCC Chief Executive Officer Helen Higgins said that the Department of Education grant that has been supporting the program will be reduced by around 35% – about $73,000. 

“We did get a decrease in funding, which is why we’re doing fundraisers like this,” Mendoza said. “We’re not going to stop our program. We’ve made a commitment to these kids, and it’s not going anywhere.”

Shephard said organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club and YMCA helped shape his life. 

“They see the wins, the losses – hopefully more wins than losses – but long before any of that, I was just a kid growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana,” he said. “I was just trying to find direction, trying to find confidence. But honestly, I was just trying to find an opportunity. … Those places for me were much more than just somewhere to go after school – and I went every day after school. 

“They became places where the adults really cared about us, OK? Places where we felt safe – you know, sometimes I didn’t feel safe in the home. Places where expectations were really set for me … Places where people believe we can become something more than our circumstances. And for a lot of kids, that belief really changes everything for them.” 

You can read more about the Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis here.