Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
OVERCOMING ALL ODDS
Coatesville man exchanges prison uniform to become successful entrepreneur, even during pandemic
DOWNINGTOWN >> Rising from adversity to create a successful business to provide for one’s family is the hallmark of the American Dream.
Clayton Kellum owns Built Fitness in Downingtown.
His business, unlike many others, has survived the pandemic during the last 13 months.
On March 13, 2020, Gov. Tom Wolf ordered all gyms closed to combat the pandemic in Pennsylvania,. Gyms remained closed, deemed a non-essential businesses, from mid-March last year until early June.
And while late last spring, gyms could at first reopen at 25 percent capacity, the state again ordered gyms to fully close their venues to the public during the recent holiday season, from Thanksgiving through the New Year.
On Jan. 4, gyms could reopen their venues again to members and guests, at 50 percent capacity.
That changes today. Beginning Easter Sunday, Wolf has eased ongoing emergency disaster restrictions to allow gyms to reopen at 75 percent capacity. Gyms in the Commonwealth have been unable to fully open at 100 percent capacity in more than a year.
“The more society gets comfortable with being out and being able to do some of the things that they want to do, that they used to do, it does help,” Kellum said of the easement.
“We’ve been making it work with all the restrictions we had to go through,” said Kellum, who grew up in Coatesville.
In the late 1990s, he became a freshman track star and All-American athlete at Lincoln University, having won a national championship for running the 400 meters in 46 seconds.
However, going into his junior year at Lincoln, Kellum, then 20, was taken into custody. A federal judge then convicted him on a nonviolent drug offense. The offense carried with it a mandatory 15-year sentence.
“The law that I was sentenced under has been changed,” Kellum said on Saturday. “It was a very biased and prejudiced law.”
Criminal justice reform was since changed first under the leadership of President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder in 2016 who changed the minimum mandatory sentences of nonviolent drug offenses. Reform was further advanced most recently under the First Step Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018.
“Being able to push past such adversity with a focused plan for my life led him to never give despite the odds,” Kellum said. He added that “I had no desire to be in that lifestyle again.”
Yet prior to the laws changing, Kellum ended up spending 15 years in federal prison for the non-violent drug offense, for an incident that happened while he was still a teenager.
“I only made it through prison because of my sisters,” Kellum said.
He was in prison from 2000 to 2015.
“The most dangerous part of the old mandatory minimum sentence was the reciprocity rate,” Kellum said.
Kellum continued, “There’s a lot that has been done since I have come from prison,” regarding criminal justice reform in American society.
After his release, Kellum opened Built Fitness in Downingtown, where his oldest son, Clayton Kellum Jr., now works as a personal trainer.
Since overcoming the greatest odds and launching a successful gym in Downingtown, Kellum has been a repeated keynote speaker at his Chester County alma maters, both Coatesville High School and Lincoln University. He’s also spoken at West Chester University including during the March for Peace, Justice and Humanity in June with local, regional and state lawmakers.
“The intrinsic motivation for me is that people understand you can recover from a fall. Hard times happen,” Kellum said. “With vision, passion, support and great people around you, you can make it happen.”
Kellum is the father of three including eldest son Clayton Kellum Jr. and two twins, a baby girl and baby boy, who were born in 2020.
Of the survival of Built Fitness during the pandemic, “I’m just giving thanks to everybody,” Kellum said. “And we have some great opportunities coming up in the future.”
Kellum said he was incredibly grateful to the trainers and members who never gave up on Built Fitness during the last year.
“Our members supported us during the pandemic, even though we were shut down,” Kellum said of individuals and families who never canceled their memberships, despite the gym being shut down to in-person classes last year.
Built Fitness had 250 prior to COVID being declared a national emergency by the White House on March 13, 2020.
“We suffered a 40 percent decline in membership due to the pandemic,” Kellum said.
“Built Fitness survived because of a dedicated team of trainers and a community of members who refused to quit,” Kellum said.
“It’s a tough time for the world and particularly our county,” Kellum said, adding, we wanted our members and the community to understand that we weren’t just fighting for our business to survive, we were fighting for our community to survive mentally and physically.”
Trainers at Built Fitness include Brandon Smith, Brandon DeShields, Tyrone butler, Theodore GordonHardy, Justin Mills, Hayley London, MacKenzie Smith and Clayton Kellum Jr.
“They sacrificed,” he said. “They put in time to make sure our members and the community around us were constantly motivated and given fitness options.”
Creative innovation also played a role in Built Fitness’ survival during the last 14 months.
When Wolf ordered all gyms to immediately close on March 13, Built Fitness launched online Zoom class options for the first time. Classes began the very next day.
“We were the pioneers of Zoom fitness,” Kellum said.
Kellum said he brainstormed with his cousin, Brandon Smith, of Coatesville, “to come up with BuiltFit x ZoomFit Classes the day we got notice of the shutdown. We literally started a whole new way of training in a couple hours of trying to figure out how we would continue motivating and training our members.” Smith is the head trainer at Built Fitness.
Born in Philadelphia, Kellum’s mom, Beatrice Kellum, was killed when he was three months old.
Her good friend, Patricia Fields, adopted the orphaned baby and brought Kellum home to Coatesville, where he was raised and lived prior to attending Lincoln University.
His adopted mother has since passed away.
“I’ve lost both my moms,” he said. “Both of those families are in Coatesville. It is very personal.”
Kellum added that of his biological family, he was the baby of 10.
Fields had four children as well, so he is the youngest of five siblings within his adopted family.
“Both of my families are awesome,” Kellum said of his biological and adoptive families. “They have loved me and given me everything.”