Confident, humble, determined, polite -- these are a few of the words his admirers use to describe Gary Fearon, the 2008 winner of the Maine Youth of the Year competition.

Among those many admirers are Justices Donald Alexander, Nancy Mills and Wayne Douglas, as well as Ramey Wight-Chapman, a top executive at L.L. Bean, and John Christie, the publisher of this newspaper.

They were the judges who had the difficult job of choosing a Youth of the Year winner from among nine stellar candidates from across the state.

Fearon, a 17-year-old from the Penoscot Nation Boys and Girls Club (a satellite of the Waterville Boys and Girls Club), joined the Maine Civil Air Patrol at age 13 and flew his first airplane the next year.

He's gotten honors or high honors in each of his semesters at Old Town High School, where his courses included Advanced Placement statistics and chemistry.

He'll begin Air Force basic training in July.

In a statement about the role the Boys and Girls Club played for him, he said, "It's a place where all kids, regardless of their age, can find someone to talk to, someone who will listen and someone who will care."

That sentiment was echoed by Fearon's competitors. The club, wrote one, "has always been there for me and my sister with advice, guidance and confidence in our abilities." Said another: "It's a place where you can be safe and have fun at the same time."

And you'd have to be hardhearted indeed to resist the emotion in this teen's statement: "I can always go down and feel loved by everyone I know. I feel very safe, and I know that any one of the staff would protect me and any one of the kids."

Three cheers for Gary Fearon, and godspeed as he makes his way through the Air Force and the rest of his life.

But three cheers and then some for the Boys and Girls Clubs of this state, who give children and teens what every one of us needs: a safe place in which to be loved.