Fun Games For Girls

Landon Smith, 9; Trinity Elston, 10; Devaundria Glanton, 11; Imayiah Glanton, 11; and Emilyann Smith, 7, clockwise from the left, play a board game at the Boys & Girls Club in Lincoln. Brian Schoenhalsslideshow On Oct. 31, 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 2.4 million children under the age of 12 were home alone before or after school.

Almost 11 years later, in the thick of a tough recession, the country’s economy is in a down spiral with under employment still on the rise in most households.

Parents are working longer hours and sometimes two or three jobs to make ends meet, and leaving their children to fend for themselves at home.

Studies show these children, often referred to as latchkey kids, are more prone to get into trouble while unsupervised or sit in front of a television all day with no constructive activities to participate in.

National organizations like the Boys & Girls Club of America are working to combat laziness, boredom and apathy with recreational activities that help build up young people into responsible and well-rounded citizens.

“If we don’t give them resources for what they need or something to do, we’re part of the problem,” said Richard Curry, unit director for the Boys & Girls Club in Pell City.

“It costs $50,000 a year to incarcerate one youth. It costs $1,000 a year to put them in the Boys & Girls Club. That’s why we say you can pay for the service now or pray for the victim later.”

Curry is just one of several unit directors in the area who see the importance in making a difference in their communities by giving the next generation the tools they will need to succeed.

“The parents can’t do it themselves, the teachers and schools can’t do it themselves, it really takes a whole village to raise a child,” said Tavia Sillmon, unit director for the Boys & Girls Club in Lincoln.

What Sillmon refers to is the “education equation” the Boys & Girls Club practices where the home, parents and family + schools, teachers, and academics + community partners = reversing the high school dropout crisis.

In addition to providing tutoring for homework, Boys & Girls Clubs offer students academic programs specifically geared toward literacy, technology, math, engineering and the arts.

“I’ve had several parents say that ‘sure our child could stay home by themselves but there is a relief in knowing they’re here and being supervised,’” Sillmon said.

The Boys & Girls Club operates year-round, with special programs set up specifically in the summer. Its national membership includes about 65 percent of children from minority homes.

“Staff members usually drop them off at home from here in case their parents are still working or they go to the playground or a friend’s house.

From 2-7 p.m., the doors of Talladega’s Boys & Girls Club stay open, with constructive activities that help build confidence and character.

Exercise activities are held on Mondays, Life Skills are taught on Tuesdays, Wednesdays are arts and crafts day, on Thursdays there is an obstacle course, and Fridays are for free play, where the kids can play XBOX and Wii video games, or participate in a relay race at the track on the second floor.

Hodges said she has a few students with autism and special needs, but they are treated no differently. To her, all of the students are a part of the team.

The students at Patricia Montgomery’s Boys & Girls Club unit at Stemley Road Elementary love creating small gardens. They grow cauliflower, tomatoes, greens, squash, and many other vegetables in small cups.

She said activities like the garden can teach children far more than anything on the television they could be sitting in front of all day.

“The parents prefer the children are here because they know we’ll keep them busy and if they need the discipline, we’ll give them the discipline,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery refers to that 3-6 p.m. margin of the day as “the three to six hour of danger” where students are left unsupervised, usually after school, and get into trouble out of boredom.

Instead of parents being worried about their children at home, they can rest assured their child is learning something, having a snack before dinner and, most of all, having fun in the process.

“That’s the No. 1 rule of Pell City’s Boys & Girls Club: having fun,” Curry said. “I would say this is Pell City’s best kept secret.”

Curry said people often mistake the program as being solely for low-income children and families, when in fact it is there for everyone.

“Simply put, we’re here for the kids,” Curry said. “It doesn’t matter what income level. It’s not just a daycare program; we’re trying to train them up.”

“We get a lot of families who just sign up for Family Night,” Curry said. “They get the chance to interact with their kids and do just what their kids do.

The summer slots are already filling up for all of the Boys & Girls Clubs in the area, but many of the unit directors say that it shows them how significant and viable the clubs are to the community.

“That’s just one thing we see in our boys today that’s going to be with them the rest of their lives when they become men and fathers.”

He said they usually get a lot of help from donations from the community and from older boys who were once members of the Boys Club, especially during these tough economic times.

“It’s tough times but you really see how special your community is when they pull together to have a place like this, a place for kids to go.”