Commission hears Boys and Girls Club update

Posted

At their July 18 meeting, Moody County commissioners heard an update on the Boys and Girls Club from Vanessa Merhib, the club’s executive director.

She informed the board that the club started summer school a few weeks ago at Studio 52 for 28 kids, which is a record high.

“[Summer school] is for kindergarten through third graders that the teachers and families have identified are at risk of having some summer learning loss or might need some help,” Merhib said.

The classes might also be for kids who need extra learning time or who might not enjoy reading. The summer school will go for five weeks leading up to the next school year.

Merhib said they’ve been seeing anywhere from 70-100 kids a day visiting the club.

They have also moved their Flandreau Indian School program from three to five days a week for the summer.

“This summer we had 42 FIS teenagers get jobs in the Flandreau and Brookings communities,” Merhib said. “That was really exciting. They went through 10-week trainings on everything from not to wear pajama pants to work to how to write a resume.”

The number of teens visiting the club is around 12-15 a day, up from 7-10 last year. Merhib said their favorite part of the club is the new gym area.

An AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) team served with the Boys and Girls Club of Brookings and Moody County as well as the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe Tribal Education Youth Center for 6-8 weeks.

The team assisted with summer programing at these locations along with performing various cleaning and maintenance tasks throughout the facilities.

Merhib said the Boys and Girls Club will be requesting $5,000 of support from the county again this year, but that funding is one of their biggest challenges right now.

She said a majority of the funding for the club is through 21st Century funding, totaling around $115,000 a year. The club is entering the fourth year of that funding, but it wasn’t put in the President Trump’s budget.

The food program, where the club serves any child aged 0-18 free breakfast and lunch, also wasn’t in the federal budget. This costs around $30,000 a year.

“There has been an extension made for 2017-2018, but that we shouldn’t expect [funding] beyond that,” Merhib said. “That’s probably our biggest upcoming risk, how to supplement those programs and keep the club operating at the level that it is.”

Starting Jan. 1, the club will move from $20 a year to $25, following the rule of the club to take the child who can pay the least and charge that amount for every child, remaining affordable and providing accessibility to the community.

Merhib said they will continue selling raffle tickets each year and looking at different ways to raise money to keep the Boys and Girls Club of Moody County sustainable.

Caption with pix Can keep the Fair note with the photo