Boys and Girls Club celebrates opening new location
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ST. IGNATIUS — The Boys and Girls Club of the Flathead Reservation held the grand opening of its newest location in St. Ignatius on Dec. 8, celebrating their new space and all the opportunities for local kids that comes with it.
While the club has operated in St. Ignatius since September of last year, partnering with the schools to hold their programs within school buildings, they recently opened doors in a building of their own thanks to the city. In mid-August, the club began work at 20 First Avenue, which also houses the local food pantry, by giving the building a facelift and upgrades to better fit its new role as a clubhouse for kids.
The new space provides the club with more room for students and diverse programming, Executive Director Aric Cooksley explained. With homework help and mentoring programs, art and maker spaces for everything from cooking to pottery, cultural, outdoor, and technology education, the Boys and Girls Club of the Flathead Reservation provides a diverse array of opportunities for local kids.
While the Polson and Ronan clubs currently have a waitlist due to limited staffing and a high volumes of kids, the St. Ignatius location is accepting new members. The cost is $90 per kid for the school year - or about $10 per month. Summer enrollment is $150 per child. This includes snacks and meals, homework help, access to programs, as well as giving kids of all ages a fun and safe place to go after school.
The membership dues, Cooksley explained, contribute a small portion of the funds that keep the club going. While every Boys and Girls Club are members of the national Boys and Girls Clubs of America, which provides certain requirements around operating and programming standards to make sure each location is a safe place for kids, the national organization doesn’t control the local clubs. Each organization is responsible for its own funding, and is not in the budget of any state or municipality. “Every dollar we get is money we have to go after, whether it’s from private donors or foundations and grants,” Cooksley said.
Individual donors tend to contribute 35-40% of the organization’s budget each year, while another 35-40% comes from business donations and trusts and about 15% comes from public funding such as grants.
Those interested in donating can do so on the website, flatheadbgc.org, or by mailing a check to P.O. Box 334, Ronan, MT 59864. Donations can either go toward specific programs, or to a general donation that helps to keep the clubs running.
Another area of need for the club at all three locations is volunteers. The club is looking for volunteers to offer their time, passion, energy and skills to enrich the lives of the attending kids, and volunteers are welcome to apply for any area of programming. Just like employees, volunteers undergo a full background check to keep the kids safe, and applications to volunteer can be found online at: flatheadbgc.org/volunteer or in person at any of the club locations.
“There’s definitely a lot of opportunities for (people) to get involved,” Cooksley commented. “Whether it’s people who want to come listen to a kid read, or they have a particular kind of expertise … or we have a mentoring program and we’re very much looking for mentors at all three of our programs. Those are the areas that are very needed.”
