“The Boys & Girls Club Opens Its Doors in Yelm”
“Parents and their school-aged children sometimes need to get creative about after-school care. Younger ones can enroll in daycare or casual play groups, but what about the older kids?
“This is where the Boys & Girls Clubs of Thurston County (BGCTC) serve a vital purpose. Its localized branches are more than just a place to hang out while mom and dad are at work. With strong core beliefs of academic success, good character and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles, the organization prepares students for school, the world, and their place in it. And in the fall of 2019, the BGCTC opened a Yelm branch to do just that for a whole new group of students.”
“Director of Operations Shellica Trevino explains that the new Yelm branch—hosted in the former Yelm City Hall at 105 West Yelm Avenue—hopes to serve nearly 100 students, with 50 attending on average.”
“‘Yelm has been part of our strategic plan for a number of years,’explains Trevino. ‘When the opportunity of the City Hall building presented itself, our board and Club leadership felt this was a great time to make the dream of a Yelm Club a reality. Yelm Community Schools committed to being a strong partner, which is crucial to the success of a Boys & Girls Club Branch. The City Council worked through a process to ultimately allow us to lease the building we are using. Many community members indicated that they would help support the Club financially. There is very little in the way of youth services after school in Yelm, and over 40% of the students receive free and reduced lunch, which indicates a high-need population. Everything came together to make this happen.’
“With hard work and dedication, the new branch opened its doors on September 4, 2019, and held its grand opening ribbon cutting on October 23. It offers “mainly afterschool programming,” says Trevino, ‘with several program areas, including art, homework, a games room and a computer lab. We are open after school until 6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. We will also run a summer day camp for Club members. Sign up for Day Camp will be in mid-April,'” by Kathryn Millhorn, Thurston Talk. Read more
Post a comment
No comments yet. You should be kind and add one!
By submitting a comment you grant Yelm Community Blog a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.