Boys & Girls Clubs offer volunteer opportunities Share your skills with the next generation
by STEVE DEUTERMANN BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA
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any organizations in the community benefit from the efforts of dedicated volunteers. This is abundantly the case at the Boys & Girls Clubs (BGC) of the Olympic Peninsula where, over the course of each year, more than 300 volunteers step forward to perform services, maintenance, event support and youth development activities. At the BGC, kids sometimes literally bounce off the building’s walls. In a typical day at the clubs, kids do homework, play foosball, eat healthy food, work or play on laptops, read books from the club libraries, participate in sports and other activities they would never have access to without the clubs. There are so many kids playing and working that you can’t count the smiles. Some are in foster homes. Some are from homes with deep challenges: addiction, domestic violence, sexual assault and neglect. Some have perfectly healthy home lives and just need somewhere to go after school. The club’s programs, staff and volunteers help children address whatever challenges they are facing in life, lending their skills and life experience to these wonderful, unique children. With just a little love and kindness, kids coming from even the most difficult life situations have great resiliency if they are in a place of safety where they know at least one adult cares about them and will help them. Given a place to learn, receive good nutrition and have positive role models, these children can learn to live well and lead.
Lifelong Journey • JULY 2019
PHOTOS BY SHAWNA DIXSON
Tutor Barb Paschal and student Emma Rhodes, daughter of Jason and Michelle Rhodes, reading Paschal’s more recent story during a tutoring session.
The scale of child welfare issues in our community is greater than most would imagine, but the staff and volunteers at the BGC see the reality of these children’s hardships every day. They work hard to encourage, mentor, hold accountable and smile at these kids. With your help, they can overcome. Many volunteers approach the club administration with an idea of volunteering in a specific way, but find something going on at the club that draws them to do something different. The variety of volunteer opportunities is almost limitless. Landscaping, athletic coaching, food service, art room management, helping with the summer food program, tutoring, chaperoning and conducting youth development activities, such as BGC of America national programs and S.M.A.R.T. (an acronym for the popular
objective-setting philosophy used in education that stands for “specific,” “measurable,” “achievable,” “relevant” and “time-oriented”) are among the many avenues of which volunteers guide the lives and well-being of Clubs kids. Barb Paschal is a retired physical therapist and works as a volunteer community educator. She has been working with Emma Rhodes, who struggles with reading due to a visual processing disorder and other obstacles. The books Rhodes had access to were difficult for her to read, so Paschal wrote and illustrated books designed to appeal directly to Rhodes. Paschal also gave Rhodes a teddy bear to read with. Rhodes named him Stampy. VOLUNTEER continues on 10 >>
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