For the past 10 years, Don Mathis has been the face of the Boys & Girls Club of Harford County.

After May 18, that will no longer be the case, as Mathis has decided to step down.

“It’s going to be really tough to fill his shoes. I hope we can at least fill one of them,” said Tom Owens, president of the Boys & Girls Club of Harford County board of directors.

Owens said Mathis has been integral in helping the nonprofit — which specializes in providing kids in “at-risk communities” with an alternative to gangs and drugs — flourish from an organization on the verge of collapse in the mid-1990s to a program that is nationally recognized.

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“It was time for a change,” Mathis, 59, said Monday about his departure. “It will be good for me and good for the agency.”

Mathis, a native of Philadelphia who now resides in Havre de Grace, said he feels comfortable leaving the Boys & Girls Club because the organization has a “solid board of directors and staff.” He admits that when he first came onboard, the nonprofit was not in the position it is now.

“Before I came in, they had to close down for a while because of a lack of funding,” he said, adding that now he oversees a budget of $1.7 million for all the individual Boys & Girls Clubs in Harford. “We have always made payroll,” Mathis said.

“We are going to deeply miss him and his leadership, but we have to move on, just as he is,” board member Vi Ripken said.

Owens said a committee has been formed to find a replacement for Mathis, and given Mathis’ reputation in the nationwide organization — overseeing expansion of the club and being able to create innovative funding streams — he hopes someone within the organization will agree to pick up where Mathis left off.

As for Mathis, his future is uncertain.

“I want to do something working with kids …” he said. “But I still have not yet found a good fit.”

mplum@baltimoreexaminer.com