Youth of the Month February 2016: Charles “Chucky” Williams

By Jeremy Brown

Twelve-year-old Charles Williams Jr., or Chucky as friends call him, uses the darkest moment of his life as his inspiration to shine light on others. It’s never about “me” for the sixth-grade hockey player from Cedar Hall.

“He has every reason in the world to be an angry kid, but he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body” said Williams’ mother, Rachel Crews. “He has a huge, tender heart.”

Chucky’s father, Charles Williams Sr., lost his battle with colon cancer at the age of 33 in 2013. His best friend, football buddy and father was gone. Like anyone who loses a parent, Chucky was heavily affected by his father’s passing. Instead of letting it bring him down, however, Chucky uses the inspiration of his father’s memory to serve others.

It’s hard to pinpoint just one area of service in highlighting Chucky, and that’s why he is Youth Resources’ February Youth of the Month. He does it all.

Let’s start with his allowance. Chucky saved up his money to buy a new game last month and in route to get the game with his mom, he saw a homeless man while stopped on the Lloyd Expressway. Rather than proceed along to buy the game with his hard earned money, he handed every penny to the man on the road.

“I’ve seen that the world can be ugly,” said Chucky. “I want to make it a better place.”

Within the last year Chucky has collected cans for the food pantry, donated half of his toys to the 911 Gives Hope Christmas project, volunteered with Keep Evansville Beautiful and made donations to help send 20 of his Cedar Hall classmates to Disney World. A new student enrolled at Cedar Hall this year who struggled speaking and reading English – Chucky befriended that student and continually works with him one-on-one in reading and using computers.

He’s on the A Honor Roll at school too, but that’s a small piece of what impresses his favorite teacher, Tiffany Dix.

“He has always been the young man I hope my other students will model their behavior after,” said Dix. “I enjoy having him in my class because he always has a positive attitude and helps others, even when things are tough.”

“I just like helping people,” said Chucky. “It’s fun. It makes me feel good inside.”

Jeremy Brown is the TEENPOWER, Special Events and Communications Coordinator at Youth Resources.