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Club
Clips City Donates Land For New Greater Milford Club The Greater Milford Boys & Girls Club is pleased to announce that they have secured land for their new Club location. The City of Milford generously donated more than nine acres of land, located in the Business Park in Milford. With more than 550 members enrolled at the Greater Milford Club, the Club has outgrown the existing building. We expect to triple the amount of children presently served when the new facility is complete. The new 30,000 square foot facility will include a learning center, an arts and crafts room, a large gymnasium, an indoor swimming pool, and several multi-purpose rooms. The Greater Milford Club’s capital campaign to raise the necessary funds to build the new Club will be launched in the spring of 2003. The Club has already secured close to $1.2 million toward the campaign. Governor Ruth Ann Minner will serve as Honorary Chairperson for the Greater Milford Club’s capital campaign committee, Bob Voshell as Chairman, and Kate Marvel, Greater Milford Club Board President, as a committee member. Additional committee members will be recruited from the Greater Milford community. For more information, please contact Maria Edgerton, Greater Milford Club Director, at (302) 422-4453. 3 B&GCD Youth Demonstrate Good Deed In response to the recent unjust incident involving several community youth and Mr. Frank Hayes, members of the B&GCD Future Stars program arranged to demonstrate that many kids are also capable of good deeds. Since he is presently incapacitated as a result of injuries from the recent publicized event, Hayes currently resides with his daughter. So, the youth volunteered to rake the leaves at Hayes’s daughter’s home. They filled 20 fifty-five gallon trash bags with leaves and returned the to finish the clean-up project. Program participants included Jerome Pottinger (age 16), Noel White (age 15), Kyle Wannamaker (age 15), and Phil Arendall, Future Stars Director. The Future Stars program assists 10-year-old members, who are struggling academically, to become caring, responsible, and productive citizens and to ensure that the members continue their education beyond high school. The program allows staff to build relationships with them, provides athletic and social activities to aid in their personal growth, and works to improve the effectiveness of our educational assessment, curriculum design, and evaluation process. Currently, the Future Stars program has enrolled 25 high school and 30 middle school kids. For more information, please contact Phil at (302) 658-1870. New Lifts Make Greater Newark Club Pool Handicapped Accessible The Greater Newark Club’s Aquatic Department recently installed six platform lifts in their indoor swimming pool, making the pool entirely accessible to those with special needs. The pool lifts assist wheelchair-bound swimmers in and out of the pool. The addition of the platform lifts were made possible through a recent New Castle County Community Development Block Grant. Since the pool is one of the few handicapped accessible pools in the area, the Club has formed relationships with the MS Society, School of the Deaf, and the Reach Program to allow their members preferential passage to the Club pool. For more information, please contact Karen Reilly-Morton, Aquatic Coordinator for the Greater Newark Club at (302) 836-6464. Anniversary of Wesley College Partnership In partnership with Wesley College, the Wesley College Boys & Girls Club began operation five years ago. In 1997, Wesley College executed its strategic plan, which mandated greater community outreach. Wesley College found the perfect fit in partnering with a youth development agency namely, the B&GCD. Wesley College provided 2,000 square feet in one of its education centers to the B&GCD to institute the Wesley College Club. Today, Wesley College has included the use of a charter school, in which the Club provides after-school programming. The Club also occupies a two–story house (owned and maintained by Wesley College), which was renovated with funds raised by both organizations. The Wesley College and the B&GCD collaboration was a pioneer effort that fostered the mission of service of colleges and universities. Now titled ‘Clubs go to College’, it was the first Club-campus partnership in the nation with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (B&GCA). The Club, which operates under the umbrella of the Greater Dover Clubs, has 370 members. Sixty percent of these members have increased one to four letter grades in school since joining the Club. Additionally, the Dover Police Department noted an 80% decrease in vandalism since the Club opened. Wesley College Club has been working with the Delaware Service Commission on an AmeriCorp program. In the future, successful participants in the AmeriCorp program will have the opportunity to attend Wesley College. For more information, please contact Suchi Hiraesave, Proposal Writer/Grants Administrator, at (302) 674-3313. Citigroup Improves the Club Café In 2001, Citigroup Foundation initially funded the construction of the Club Café, located in the Clarence Fraim Club. The Club Café has given members an opportunity to earn memberships and rewards. As a recipient of the Citigroup 2002 Impact Grant from the Citigroup Foundation, the B&GCD recently received an additional $15,000. Five thousand dollars will help improve the Club Cafe and Club Bucks education program and institute a Youth Entrepreneurship Academy at the Clarence Fraim Club, $5,000 will help expand the Club Bucks concept and Financial Education classes to other Boys & Girls Clubs, and $5,000 will aid the B&GCD Future Stars Program. The Entrepreneurship Academy will be a 12 week interactive business course where youth will learn about managing a business. The Clarence Fraim Club also received an additional $2,500 to support the Club Bucks program. For more information, please contact Elijah Richardson, Program Director for the Clarence Fraim Club at (302) 655-4591. B&GCD Do Make a Difference 2 Gratifying Stories The B&GCD Henry M. Brader Elementary School Site received a phone call from a parent who was thankful to the Club that her 2nd grade sons were finally complimented by their teacher for coming to school with completed homework. The parent admitted she had not had success with her children until they enrolled in B&GCD’s Project Learn. The Greater Dover Clubs are an essential component of the Truancy Program, which is fully funded by the Criminal Justice Council. Once a school district has identified a truant student, a Visiting Teacher assigns them to Truancy Court, which will require them to enroll in the Career Explorers and Smart Moves programs at a Boys & Girls Club in Kent County for about three months. Upon completing and graduating from the program, members are offered employment at the Club. The program is expected to receive additional funding from the Criminal Justice Council. Happily, the Greater Smyrna Clayton Club recently reported that a member has far exceeded the Truancy Program goals. He was involved in drugs and failing school. Since joining the program, he has been drug free for three months, has had perfect attendance at school, has brought his grades up to As and Bs, and has the highest grade point average in his class. Upon completion of the program requirements, he became a Junior Staff member for the Greater Dover Clubs. For more information, please contact Theresa Carter, Brader School Site, at (302) 547-2913 or Mike Roscoe, Greater Smyrna Clayton Club Director, at (302) 659-5610. Simon Circle Club Awards its '03 Youth of the
Year, Mr. Tyrell Moses For additional information regarding any of our news briefs, please email or call us at 302-658-1870 |
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