Director leaving Cape Boys & Girls Club

NaTika Rowles, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Cape Girardeau, is moving to St. Louis.

Rowles shared the news while we chatted amid the din of the River Corridor Task Force Family Fun Night on Friday. Hundreds of people attended.

Rowles said the decision was tough, but she needs to be in St. Louis to help her grandmother, who helped raise her and has been lending a hand with Rowles' three sons periodically. She is transferring to the St. Louis Boys & Girls Club offices, and will be the Cape Girardeau club's interim director until her replacement is named, she said. The decision surprised many, including Nancy Jernigan, executive director of the United Way of Southeast Missouri. United Way helps fund Boys & Girls Club activities with grants of up to $75,000 each year, nearly half of that for the after-school homework program, LIFE Initiative.

"I was really surprised, but happy for her," Jernigan said. "I think it's the right thing for her and her family. I have faith that someone will come along to pick up where she left off. It's just such a great organization."

In addition to serving as president of the Southside Optimist Club, Rowles was a liaison for Cape Girardeau's middle school and active member of the Parent-Teacher Association.

She received a Martin Luther King Jr. Service Award and a nomination for the Zonta Club of Cape Girardeau's Woman of Achievement award, both in 2007.

Jernigan said an open house is scheduled for those who want to wish Rowles well, at 4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the United Way office, 430A Broadway. Refreshments will be served.

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As near as I can tell, there's no "Mr. Cape Girardeau" award, but if one existed, surely Melvin Gateley would be a candidate. The retired Cape Girardeau Schools principal served as a city councilman, founded the Vision 2020 Community Relations Council and has racked up countless hours volunteering. "He's a cool dude, and everything he does, is all for the city," Jernigan said.

"I couldn't imagine anyone who lived in Cape Girardeau for six months wouldn't know who Melvin is," said Doug Austin, Vision 2020 chairman. "He just gives so much as has given so much of his time, in leadership and education and parks and recreation."

Vision 2020's annual awards of distinction, which will be handed out Tuesday morning at a breakfast hosted by Saint Francis Medical Center, were named for Gateley to recognize him on an annual basis, Austin said.

Pat King

This year's winners include Pat King, a high-school dropout who returned to school to prevent her daughter from becoming a dropout. King went on to earn a degree in social work from Southeast Missouri State University. She currently works part time at the Family Resource Center. Her boss, Denise Lincoln, said she would like to make King a full-time employee, but doesn't yet have the funding.

Teresa Wildman, a Vision 2020 board member who is organizing Tuesday's breakfast, e-mailed me to let me know one award winner, Kaye Hood "lives outside of the city limits but we did decide that it didn't matter where people lived as long as they were contributing to the city of Cape Girardeau."

My story in Friday's paper indicated Hood, chairwoman of LOVE INC (Love In the Name of Christ), lived on the city's south side.

Questions, suggestions or tips for Lost on Main Street? E-mail me at pmcnichol@semissourian.com or call 335-6611, extension 127