For more than 50 years Ray Rinaldi has been using boxing as a way to get thousands troubled kids off the street.

At his athletic and education centers on the north and westside, kids learn not only about boxing, but about life, and Rays philosophy on life can be summed up in one word: discipline.

"We have no doo rags here, no pants down to your knees and of course no swearing and I got to tell you something,the kids respect that," he says.

One of Ray's boxers is Carlos Vargas grew up on the streets of Brooklyn and is now a U.S. Marine. Vargas says the lessons taught here are exactly what the young kids who come here need to hear.

"A lot of the kids they come in and once they get here within days you can see the drive, the determination, the tenacity. So it's definitely a great place for the kids," he says.

As tough as Rinaldi is, he can't fight the bad economy. In recent years Rinaldi's gyms have lost seventy five percent of their state and county funding.

" When they cut the funding off for us they hurt us. We don't have enough staff," he says.

Rinaldi is getting by now with some last minute donations from the Syracuse PBA and some funding secured with the help of Senator John Defrancisco's office. However, Rinaldi says those funds are only a temporary fix and he worries about the longterm future of his gyms and the kids who come in here off the streets each day. That is only a temporary fix and Rinaldi worries about the longterm future of his gym and the kids he brings in off the streets each day.

"If I close this place tomorrow that means all the kids I train would be out on the street. That means they would be with the same gangs they were with before they started coming here," he says.

Rinaldi's boxers will be holding a "Fight Night Under the Nights," fundraiser at Alliance Bank Stadium, Saturday August 25th at 6 pm. For more information: www.rayskidz.com.