A kid state of mind

Don't ask Darren Hughes how old he is.

He laughs lightly and refuses to answer.

"Age is just a state of mind," he said Friday in the Education Center at the Boys & Girls Club of Western Nevada's campus on Stewart Street.

The building houses his computer lab and the arts department.

In Carson City since 1989, Hughes has offered his many computer talents to youth at the club. But more important, he'll say, he's been a friend to countless children -- some of them in desperate need of a mentor.

"I'm, hopefully, a good influence on the kids," he said. "A lot of them come from broken homes and unstable families. They're happy to see you because you're here for them every day and you're their friend every day."

Each day he is there, sporting a ponytail and San Jose Sharks jacket, sitting in his regular spot at the front of the computer room in the wheelchair he's used since he was 16.

He jokes that he always has a seat.

While he was living in Hawaii, a 20-foot fall smashed vertebrae in Hughes' lower back. He admits it was tough for a kid of 16 to adapt, but he did.

He graduated from high school in Aztec, N.M. -- year unknown. He and his two sisters and brother moved between his divorced mother's and father's homes during his boyhood.

After attending college at New Mexico State, Hughes wanted a change of pace and thought Reno would be a good place to start.

His grandparents lived in Carson City and, during a visit here, he decided this"was exactly what I was looking for," he said.

His first job in Nevada was for United Way in Reno, where he helped set up an information referral network.

Then he became payroll manager for a cable company in Mound House then taught computers at Western Nevada Community College.

He first volunteered for the Boys & Girls Club in 1998, and that parlayed into a full-time position.

"I've always loved kids. I didn't know about the club when I was younger, or I would have come here, too," he said.

In taking over the computer lab, Hughes had his own ideas about how to run things.

Now, for four hours in the afternoon, he teaches dozens of students at 15 computers. Each child gets a star with 15 segments, each segment representing a block of instruction. Once the star is filled, students move onto the next level.

Classes range from word processing, to desktop publishing to Web page design. Hughes' newest endeavors have been a digital camera class and electronics lab.

Hughes has his own Web site cherishit.com, on which people can post collectibles for sale for free.

In his off time, he's taken up archery and often finds himself in a tunic and tights for demonstrations or competitions at renaissance fairs in the area.

Recently, he and a friend have become engaged in a rage from the 1980's - "Dungeons and Dragons."

But all that is pushed to the side when the Sharks play.

Hughes' classroom walls are adorned with Sharks pennants, and his students now watch the games because he does.

Sometimes, when the Sharks are playing badly, Hughes admits he can be a little grumpy, "But I try not to show it to the kids," he said.

A poster signed by his class and sent to the Sharks' headquarters garnered them signed photographs of the players.

Hughes said he has no plans to leave Carson City.

"I'll just stay right here. I know of a good chunk of people," he said. "It seems like sometimes I probably know everyone."

And there's his job.

"I'll watch one kid teach another kid something I taught them," he said. "That's when it's good because one is learning and the other is gaining confidence.

"I love my job because you can see what effect you are having. I love the kids, they're great."