 Hi, welcome to Arlington's community update today. I'm here at Arlington Boys and Girls Club with Jennifer Kevin and Derek Why don't you guys all introduce yourselves first? My name is Derek Harren. I'm the executive director of the Arlington Boys and Girls Club I'm Jennifer Goodwin, and I am the community relations coordinator And I'm Kevin flood the assistant director All right, it's great to meet you all Derek Why don't you start off by telling us what the Boys and Girls Club is all about and how are you guys? contributing to the community Well, well the mission of the Arlington Boys and Girls Club is to inspire and enable all children especially those of challenging circumstances to realize their full potential What that means, I think is to provide opportunities for our kids whether it's Just becoming a member and being able to come here after school and meet friends It's a place for Parents can drop off their kids and we're providing a fun safe place for their kids to go after school or really during any non-school hours You know to help out the working parents You know, we're also here to provide support to families in need We help with back-to-school supplied drives going back to school is a very stressful time for parents We've been able to provide backpacks and school supplies You know as a huge help during the holiday season. We also provide a help at Thanksgiving for families in need or just having a tough time You know, we also help out families are in Christmas So really they have to provide support for any families are in and around Arlington And that's that's really what we do here All right, excellent So you guys are really giving back to Arlington and I'm sure the whole community really appreciates this organization Now Jennifer, I'm gonna have you talk to us a little bit about what sort of events you've had going on lately What you've done recently what you have coming up What do you have to say about that? Well, we're really excited about a lot of the fun things that we do here at the club Just this week Friday night. We have one of our biggest events which is called the fall family festival And we have about two hundred to three hundred families who come Lots of children and we do a pumpkin car a pumpkin decorating station. We have a moon bounce We offer food for a nominal fee so families can come and have supper while they're their kids are playing We have a balloon juggler. So really it's a nice fall event We're hoping that the weather holds not sure about that, but what rain or shine. It'll be a great night Then after that we have a neon dance party for our sixth graders, which is new this year. That'll be here at the club October 18th After that we have a we have a wonderful affiliation with the Arlington family connection and we do some events with them We have a Halloween party towards the end of October that will be announcing the dates And that'll be for the real young under five set Coming up in March. Oh, no after that. We actually have in November. We have our birthday week So we have lots of fun activities for our members our club member kids to do every day of the week There's something special and different and we incorporate the families with With the members as well so the families can come in and the members can bring a friend Which is a really neat way for friends to Experience the club and to hopefully decide to become a member as well We have a party in March for kids a beach ball party And then we have a fun kid day in the summer for all of our summer campers We do moon bounces and ice cream and lots of different games in the field We're so lucky to be able to be on the pond in this facility and then have use of the field across the street So we're able to put on some really fun events. So we hope people come on down come visit us Yeah, that sounds like a whole lot of fun So anyone who's not a member consider joining because as you heard a lot of fun stuff coming up now Kevin, why don't you tell us a little bit about the different kinds of programs that you have here at the club? We offer a wide range of programs here at the club actually and I'll begin with our younger age group and we offer a licensed preschool program and We offer children 2.9 to five years of age We also offer an after-school program as well a licensed after-school program In which we go around to all the elementary schools in town and pick up the kids and bring them back here to the club and Take part in all the fun activities. We have we have our club kids program Which is a drop-in program where kids come and play after school and they take part in activities such as free swim open Gym take advantage of our learning center. We have our teen space here and we offer You know we offer programs Basically for all ages of kids, you know, we have for as I said, we offer swim team programs. We offer basketball programs We offer programs for tots, you know wide-range some stem programming some cooking classes book reading classes Really, it's you name it most likely we have it. So it's great to be offered offer a wide range of activities for such a broad range of kids so Yeah, that's great to have such a variety here, you know, you have something going on for everyone of every age now Kevin I'm gonna ask you another question I've heard that there are some volunteer opportunities for children to get involved Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? Absolutely actually we have well over a hundred youth volunteers and We have a junior youth leader program for kids ages 10 to 12 We have a youth leader program for kids ages 12 to 14 and then we have a career launch Volunteer program for youth ages 14 to 17 and throughout the year all the you know children of all those ages I just mentioned are able to come in and give of their time and basically help other kids It's kids helping kids and it could be teaching sweat helping teach swim lessons It could be helping with a gym class It could be helping in the games and it could be helping one one little child that comes into the club And just hasn't made a friend yet and to have that up and for you know a youth in that age range of you know Let's say 10 to 17 12 to 17 to have to be able to have that impact day in and day out and truly You know in many respects there they're a mentor. They're a volunteer, but they're also a mentor and That's I think an invaluable experience for you know a lot of the kids that come in here and give of them of their time of themselves and You know really speaks to who they are and what they what they want to be in the community And we're pretty fortunate here to have again a wide range of activities and opportunities for kids to really You know kind of hone in on something that that you know that they enjoy doing and Be able to share that that passion that love with other kids, you know the same way so You know there's there's a lot to offer here, you know for for kids and volunteering Does that cover that? Yeah, so yeah, that really does sound like a great opportunity. I know for myself growing up Those leadership positions were always really beneficial. It does help you grow a whole lot This past June we actually had a our summer staff meeting in which we were all in the room here Just going over everything that had to do with the summer and Derek You know we were talking to our team and Derek asked a question of basically how many of you Grew up coming here to the club. How many of you were youth were youth leaders volunteers I'd say about 95% of the hands went up So what that tells you is that our kids when they get in here at a young age They get vested, you know and everything they do is for the well-being of the club and the kids that are that are participating here So I just wanted to speak to that for a moment All right, so you heard it from Kevin once you're here. You're locked in for life All right, so I think that's just about all the questions that I have for you guys I'll just end it with Derek. How about letting us know the best way that the public can get in contact with you Well, you're certainly welcome to come in and visit any time You give you a nice tour of the club if you've never been in here, you know, we can show you The club in action and you know, I think that's the best way, but you can certainly reach me by email By phone Any of us here, you know, we all have email addresses and you know, we're all here just about every day You know, we've been more than happy to go through any of the things that you know, we discussed today But I really think a visitor is the best way to kind of really get the feel and You know the sense of what we do here But you know, we have a website to abgclub.org. It was a good way to Kind of get a quick view of what we do too. So thank you very much for taking the time to You come to the club and talk to us today. I appreciate it. Thank you Yeah, of course. Thank you guys very much for meeting with us giving us all that great information So if you're not a member, I really think you should consider joining because it's great for kids of all ages The ABG is doing a lot for the community of Arlington and it was great to meet with you guys all today. Thank you