YOUTH SERVICE BUREAU
The Youth Service Bureau has been empowering young people to become contributing members of society by giving them all the necessary opportunities to thrive for 50 years. The free after-school and summer program provides educational, volunteer and recreational opportunities for youth ages 11-17 years old. Now, its longtime executive director is retiring and passing the torch to a deserving newcomer.
The organization, also well known for their annual “Dam Chili Cookoff ” fundraiser in Martindale, has become synonymous with the name Julie Hollar, the executive director who’s been helping local youth at the nonprofit for 21 years.
Hollar has been a role model for countless kids in the community — both the younger students enrolled in the program and the college-aged volunteers. She is a social worker and said the position at YSB fell in her lap, but that happenstance position has been her career for over two decades now.
Hollar, along with the YSB board, has been dedicated to getting the local funding for the nonprofit to keep it going for all this time. She said a lot of people do not realize the program is not state or federally funded and survives mostly off of a grant from the city, donations from the Burdine Johnson Foundation, proceeds from the chili cookoff and any other donations they can get.
For Hollar, the fight for funding has been well worth the effort to help kids who don’t always have the odds in their favor.
“I have been in a lot of situations, just like these kids have been,” Hollar said. “And I want them to know that they can be resilient, and they can do things, and they can defeat whatever the odds are that they think they’re fighting, and that they can be successful.”
She will be retiring and has named her successor in former volunteer Noah Herring.
Hollar said she chose Herring as her successor because, in addition to his good character, he used to be a volunteer, even traveling with her and the kids to help with a camping trip to Bastrop.
“He’s smart, and he is really good with people,” Hollar said. “He presents himself very well. And he’s just a good guy. He has a good heart.”
Herring was born and raised in Bryan/College Station. He was a student at Texas State, where he ran track and majored in Public Health, and he has a passion for nature. He likes to help kids get “tapped in with their environment” whether that be through a simple river cleanup or interacting with and learning to respect animals. His mother is a nurse practitioner, and his dad is a coach, which has culminated in a passion for health and sports that influences how he interacts with the kids in his care.
As far as programming, Herring hopes to possibly incorporate some sports activities like basketball, flag football or track and field, as well as some gardening, music programs and life skills training.
Herring hopes that, as a Black man, he can “spark things up a bit” and bring additional cultural diversity to the program.
Hollar added that it’s also nice for the kids to have a positive male influence.
“The kids don’t often have any kind of a positive role model, as far as a man in their lives,” Hollar said. “And we have teachable moments all the time.”
Herring is also no stranger to working with kids, even outside of volunteering with the YSB. He also coached kids through a nonprofit called College Station Sprinters and was a sixth grade English Language Arts teacher.
“I’ve always been working with kids, pretty much my whole life, even when I was a kid,” Herring said.
Herring added that at the YSB, they welcome everyone with open arms, and they would love to get more students enrolled. Hollar pointed out that it’s the only after-school program for kids 11-17 of its kind.
Learn more at ysb.org.
