MEMPHIS ROX IS THE LARGEST NONPROFIT ROCK CLIMBING GYM IN THE WORLD. BUT ROCK CLIMBING IS JUST WHERE WE BEGIN. LOCATED ON A FIVE-ACRE CAMPUS IN SOUTH MEMPHIS AND INSPIRED BY THE COOPERATIVE PHILOSOPHIES OF CLIMBING, WE PROVIDE RECREATIONAL, CREATIVE AND NUTRITIONAL PROGRAMS TO MENTOR, TRAIN AND HARNESS THE POTENTIAL OF UNDER-RESOURCED YOUTH IN OUR COMMUNITY. WE EXCLUDE NO ONE BASED ON INABILITY TO PAY. BECAUSE ONE LIFE CHANGED, CHANGES US ALL.
MEET CLARENCE & THOMAS
Where you find one brother, you’ll see the other beside him.
Most mornings, that’s at Juice Almighty – enjoying a cup of coffee at a table near the bouldering section, watching the route setters build new routes and test drive climbs.
“I used to climb scalpel, but I can’t climb anymore,” says Thomas, 73. “Yeah, we’re too old for that,”
Clarence, 65, says. “But we’ve made friends.”
The brothers started coming to Rox two years ago. Everyone who passes by stops for a hello, and often a longer conversation.
“Corner grocery stores are disappearing,” Thomas says. “So are spaces where people used to congregate. A lot of them are condemned.”
Rox is meaningful for this reason, the brothers say.