By Keith Idec

[The article originally appeared in Tuesday's edition of The Record].

Glen Tapia appreciates everything boxing has brought to him and his family.

The junior middleweight contender from Passaic still envisions winning world titles and making seven-figure purses, but he’s making a living in this brutal business, the sport he’s 100-percent certain saved his life. Wherever boxing brings him, the affable fighter has promised himself he’ll never forget the people of his hometown.

He remains one of them and hasn’t forgotten the days of his youth, when there wasn’t always enough food in the refrigerator.

Those are among the stories he’ll share Thursday as part of his non-profit Jersey Boy Foundation’s first free event, a Thanksgiving dinner from 1 to 4 p.m. at St. Anthony’s Church, 101-103 Myrtle Ave., Passaic.

With help from Latin Soul, a Newark restaurant owned by one of Tapia’s friends, and the City of Passaic, full Thanksgiving meals will be available for as many 800 people on a first-come, first-served basis. Non-Passaic residents in need also are welcome to attend.

"The church is right around the corner from where I grew up on Grove Street," Tapia, 24, said Tuesday. "This is just a blessing to be able to give back to people in the same neighborhood where I grew up. Sometimes, we as humans take things for granted. We have so much, but think we have so little.

"We don’t always appreciate things that people less fortunate than us would, from the clothes on our backs to the food we eat. I just want to show people from Passaic that are homeless or don’t have much that there are people that care about them."

Tapia (22-1, 14 KOs) plans to open a boxing gym early next year in Passaic as well. Fittingly, the Jersey Boy Boxing Club will open at the site of what once was the Passaic PAL boxing gym, a program that helped transform Tapia from an impressionable adolescent heading down a dangerous path into a caring adult with a strong social conscience.

"Without the Passaic PAL, I wouldn’t be here," Tapia said. "I want to show these kids, and not by just talking about it, that if you really are positive and work hard, you can make it out. Boxing is my platform, but I want more than that. I want to make a difference in my community."