LYNN — Private Jewels Boxing Club, owned by Alex Sepulveda, is more than just a place to train. It’s a nonprofit outreach program that helps the youth in the community and beyond.
Recently, the gym has had multiple outreach days with gyms in the surrounding areas to bring the youth together.
Sepulveda is also the coach at the club, where he’s been teaching people to box for 15 years. In addition, he’s the president of USA Boxing New England and a part of the Olympic national team as a high-performance clinician. His gym has also produced two Olympians.
“The first thing that was on my mind when I opened this gym 15 years ago was the kids,” Sepulveda said. “My goal and objectives have always been helping the youth. I see a lot of people saying that our future generation is broken, but the future generation is a reflection of us.”
Sepulveda took it to heart hearing these things, and he didn’t want to see the future generation fail.
“My outreach program helps kids that want to be helped. A lot of kids don’t want help, but I want to work with the ones that want it,” he said.
To be a part of the program, kids need to keep a minimum GPA of 2.8 in their classes. If they don’t have that GPA, the gym will help them obtain it.
“We have after-school programs that we have done with schools…We work together with Education Comes First,” he said.
Education Comes First is a nonprofit program that intends to deliver high-quality education to underprivileged youth. They believe in supporting organizations with grant funding that seeks to end learning poverty, according to their website.
Sepulveda’s program has traveled to Puerto Rico, brought Ireland to the States, and traveled around New England with the belief of using boxing as a tool to help children.
“It feels amazing what boxing is doing for these kids,” he said. “The boxing discipline that comes with it is just above and beyond. These kids need to do a certain amount of workouts, including school. They have to become champions in and out of the boxing ring.”
Sepulveda said that they don’t train bullies and kids who don’t want to be helped.
“This gym is a community run by the community. I know I own it, but I set up a place where I have a captain system at my gym. These kids select their own captains. They vote on them,” he said.
The gym has a board run by the kids, and they select their own president, vice president and secretary. They also manage the gym.
“It’s all overseen by me and my board members, but we give them the power that this community belongs to them. This gym is not mine. This gym would not have this success without the community and the people that have got together to make this dream happen for them,” he said.
Sepulveda said that the gym receives great support from the city of Lynn and other sponsors, including the Demakes family, the Boys and Girls Club of Lynn and Jimmy Connor of McGrath Construction.
“We’ve grown this concept through USA Boxing New England to reach other cities and communities,” he said. “Boxing is everywhere, helping kids of all different backgrounds, religions, genders, that doesn’t matter.”
Sepulveda says his goal is to continue to have more kids come to the gym and join the community. But to do that the gym is going to need more space.
“We have over 160 kids that come to our gym. Out of those 160 kids, we have 80 who compete and represent on a national level in Boston. We are getting between three to four kids every week,” he said.
The gym has a computer room for the kids upstairs and over 10,000 square feet with two boxing rings and other equipment.
“We want to keep growing and helping these kids,” he said. “It’s not about the money. Do you know how good it feels when you have kids come to you and say, ‘Coach, you saved my life?’ That means more than a million dollars, making a difference.”
The gym has a proven track record of kids going to college and getting into the workforce, with 90% of kids passing in the program.
“We help them to become a great example of our community,” Sepulveda said. “Knowledge is power, and that’s what I do. We pass it on so these kids have the power so they can survive in the future and become great community leaders.”
