"The main thing I enjoyed about being at McKinley was the exposure to a variety of activities."
- Tom Stanley, 1953

All of my experience at McKinley Home for Boys was very pleasant. I especially enjoyed the field trips that we took during the summer. We had a Boy Scout type camp in the San Gabriel mountains near Wrightwood that I enjoyed attending each year.Sports were a major interest for me. I was active in football; track and field and I operated the scoreboard and clock during basketball games in the gym.The main thing that I enjoyed about being a McKinley was the exposure to a variety of activities. We got to do a lot of things I would never had an opportunity to do otherwise.

"McKinley was a safe haven for me during a very difficult period of my childhood and I am grateful for the experience."
- William E. Rogers, 1970 - 1971

I recall with exceptional fondness the horse stables and the radio station. I spent as much of my free time as possible at both. After leaving McKinley I was taken in by a foster family and began working in the family business.McKinley provided me with a safe home, where education and vocational skills were equally stressed and where I was given a guiding hand towards obtaining self-esteem and ultimately self-sufficiency.

"I had it made and nobody new it."
- Bill Sklut (Ingham), 1969

I was removed from a very abusive home and "placed" in McKinley Home for boys. It was the first time in my life that I knew where I'd be sleeping the next night. It was the first time I'd ever get to make friends for more than a week or two before I had to "be on the run" again, slipping out into the night and living on the streets until I was enrolled in the next school before the law or some other agency caught up with my mother. It was the first time I'd ever have consistency in my life, a place to call home, a school with people that I would see day after day.

"I look upon my time at McKinley as what made me most of the man I am today."
- Robert Nixon, 1980 - 1984

McKinley was a major force in my life and showed me how to be a productive member of the world. I am a better man than I ever would have been had I not lived there. I hope that many more boys can be as lucky as I was to grow up in such a positive way from the effort of the staff. Each one taught me the skills of sportsmanship and responsibility.