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Massena Boys and Girls Club kicks off with pilot after-school program featuring sports, crafts, snacks

Posted 10/30/14

By ANDY GARDNER Massena fourth, fifth and sixth-graders participating in the Massena Boys and Girls Club’s pilot after-school program play dodgeball in the Jefferson Elementary gym. NorthCountryNow …

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Massena Boys and Girls Club kicks off with pilot after-school program featuring sports, crafts, snacks

Posted

By ANDY GARDNER

Massena fourth, fifth and sixth-graders participating in the Massena Boys and Girls Club’s pilot after-school program play dodgeball in the Jefferson Elementary gym. NorthCountryNow photo by Andy Gardner.

MASSENA -- Although the Massena Boys and Girls Club has yet to open its permanent clubhouse, they kicked off a pilot after-school program on Wednesday night at Jefferson Elementary in which more than 50 Massena students are partaking. They range from grades four through six.

“It’s a very big step, one of the first real steps for our community,” club president Timmy Currier told a crowd of about 30.

He said the club is crucial to stopping Massena from furthering in decay.

“The number that continues to drive me is the poverty level … one in four kids live in poverty in Massena … and they can participate without question,” he told the room.

He believes that one factor contributing to juvenile delinquency is a lack of positive peer and adult influences.

“This club will solve those problems,” he said.

Right now, the Massena Central School District is partnered with the club, hosting its pilot program at Jefferson on school days from 3 to 6 p.m. It may expand to Madison and Nightengale elementaries in the future. Currier said they are looking at opening their permanent home on Bayley Road in September. It is staffed by a combination of paid employees and volunteers, all of whom are subjected to a screening process and background checks.

The Jefferson program starts by giving the kids a healthy snack then breaking the group into thirds, each being sent and rotated among three activity station, according to the Debra Donato, the club’s program director.

“They end up finding new friends … kids from Madison or Nightengale they’ve never met before,” she said.

One of the blocks is quiet study in a computer lab, which they call “Power Hour,” another is sports and recreation and the third is craft-oriented. During a tour of the different activity areas, Donato said one day’s craft was baking cookies using stoves in the resource room. She pointed out that kids doing physical activity can choose a competitive activity like dodgeball, or non-competitive, such as walking or rope-climbing.

Bradley Gilbert, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Jefferson, said he likes the variety of offerings.

“It’s really awesome here. You get to do a lot of fun activities,” he said.

The program has been getting a boost from local organizations including United Healthcare, the Alcoa Foundation and the United Way.

The Alcoa Foundation recently gave the club $85,000.

“[The club is] a sign of hope and progress for this community,” Alcoa primary location manager Bob Lenney said.

United Healthcare donated 10 laptop computers to use to assist with homework and to allow kids to play educational games.

The United Way started an endowment that when it hits $100,000 will be split evenly among the Massena and Ogdensburg Boys and Girls clubs.

It now has $60,000. Of that, $25,000 came from two donors in Watertown, $25,000 came from the Northern New York Community Foundation and $10,000, according to United Way of Northern New York president Bob Gorman. He said one reason his organization decided to get involved is because “this world’s an ugly place and it’s doing stuff to our kids every day.”

To learn more about the Massena Boys and Girls Club, go to www.bgcmassena.org or call 250-7806.

Massena Boys and Girls Club president Timmy Currier, left, poses with one of the 10 laptops that United Healthcare donated to the program. To his left is Melissa Snyder, Lauren Roberts and Jeb Euto.
NorthCountryNow photo by Andy Gardner.