The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

More than just a club

The hallway where Joshua Cross was hanging up backpacks and small coats at the new Boys and Girls Club of Carbondale offered a rare opportunity of calmness.

"I've worked with kids mostly all my life," said Cross, the program director of the club. "So when an opportunity like this came up, I jumped at the chance."

However, the calm minute spent in the hallway was just part of a hectic day and Cross soon found himself in front of a crowd of almost 100 grade school children. The club, which opened its doors in September, has 220 children registered and anywhere from 90 to 100 children come to the club on any given weekday, Cross said.

"My favorite part of the job is seeing the kids progress from day to day," Cross said.

What is even better, he said, is seeing the children apply the skills they learned at the Boys and Girls Club out in the real world.

The club set its original goal for 400 registered children within one year. Considering the club has already surpassed the halfway mark, Randy Osborn, executive director of the club, said he does not think they will have a problem meeting that goal.

"The numbers speak for themselves," Osborn said. "It's taken awhile to get our structure together, but we're seeing improvements every week."

However, Osborn is currently focused on getting more of the community involved and aware of the club in order to sustain the program. The fee per child is $12 a year so Osborn said they rely on other types of funding.

"The goal of the Boys and Girls Club is to make it available to kids with disadvantages," Osborn said.

For now, he is hoping that the number of children increases because he is working out a partnership with Carbondale Junior Sports, Osborn said.

But to the children at the club Wednesday, the number of people there did not matter as long as they have a place to go to have fun with their friends and get help with the homework.

For 9-year-old El'lexus Madkins, this means she can now spend time playing games with her girlfriends, instead of going home by herself after school.

"I mostly play pool," Madkins said. "I usually play hockey but now I play pool."

Even 8-year-old Tayvonne Landry notices the difference the Boys and Girls Club has made in his life. Before the club opened, he would spend his days walking to the park with his sister.

"If they didn't have Boys and Girls Club, then I'd make one myself," Landry said. "I'd build myself a big building."

But pool and air hockey are not the only things available for children at the club. The basement of the gym has been totally renovated. What once used to be a drab girls' locker room now houses everything from leather couches to a computer room.

The children can grab a snack in the teen room or get help with their homework in the tutoring room and more sports-oriented children can use the gymnasium upstairs.

Lauren Moore, a volunteer at the Carbondale club, said her memories of the Ohio Boys and Girls Club left her yearning to be young now instead, that way she could benefit form the facilities that are at these childrens' fingertips.

"It was fun," Moore said. "It was some place to go that wasn't home or school and my mother didn't mind me going."

Nationally, there are 3,600 Boys and Girls Clubs of America, which offers more than 4 millions children a day a place to go.

In fact, Robin Gibbs, who registered her four children at the club, said while her children had a somewhere to go to before, the Boys and Girls Club is a better place for them to be.

"They get to socialize with other children," Gibbs said, while waiting to pickup her children. "They have more to say about their day."

Osborn said the unique system of inviting the parents into the club when they come to get their children is one more thing that makes the club unique.

"We're more than a rec club or a day care center," Osborn said.

For more information on the Boys and Girls Club of Carbondale call 457-8877

 

 

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