Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford opens South End facility
On the second day of classes for Hartford Public Schools, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford held a ribbon cutting for its new South End facility that can hold up to 1,500 kids for after-school activities.
The facility includes designated areas to play video games, foosball and basketball, to cook, complete homework and find mentors.
“Hopefully you have a big brother, a big sister or hopefully you have a really great teacher ... but sometimes you need a Boys and Girls Club where you can go, come right down after school and there’s somebody to take care of you,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said at the opening. “Sometimes you could be there with a really good friend. Be there with a nice mentor. Have a little bit of fun.
“But ... we needed it now more than ever. Our schools were open but not everybody felt comfortable going back to school. We had 100,000 kids [around Connecticut] take advantage of our summer learning camps this last year, and a lot of them were right here.”
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford have served the city since 1860. The new South End location, at 129 Ledyard Street right behind Burr School, is one of the organization’s nine city locations, and its biggest yet.
“This was a neighborhood where there were not enough services for our young people. But as you just look up the hill, think about all the kids who will be able to leave school, walk down the hill and be at a worldclass Boys & Girls Club right in their backyard,” Hartford mayor Luke Bronin said.
With a game room common area, homework room, recording studio, dance and music practice space, gym and more, it will open with a limited capacity of 300 students to maintain social distancing and follow COVID-19 guidelines.
Regardless, Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford’s president Sam Gray said he hopes that the area can serve as a place students can dream, just like he did over 40 years ago.
“This club is a dream come true for me. I never imagined when I first entered my childhood club at the age of eight, in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia, that I will one day be president and CEO of the nation’s first Boys and Girls Club and play a role in building a new club to provide opportunities like I had, to 1,500 more children in Hartford,” he said.
“It’s mind-blowing that our clubs have always played a critical role for the young and families we serve. But considering the mental, social and emotional toll that this past year-and-a-half has had on our youth, this club will be more important than ever.”
Gray wasn’t the only alum that reminisced about his time with the organization.
Recent University of St. Joseph graduate Jazaira Perez-acevedo, a Hartford native who attended the Boys & Girls Clubs for the first time when she was 6 years old, will be returning as a staff member.
“When I first joined the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford, I was dealing with a pain of a father who abandoned me, my mom and my siblings. As a result, I developed separation anxiety and was afraid to be away from my mom, even when I went to school. I feared that she would leave me too,” Perez-acevedo said.
“When my mom signed me up for the club, I felt even more removed from her, like an extra layer of distance, but I could have not been more wrong. The club staff instantly took an interest in me and made me feel welcomed and wanted. They saw my talents and my potential and helped guide me.”
Perez-acevedo added that the club helped her deal with insecurity and self-worth and she wants to become a figure that students can see themselves in now.
“I see myself [in the children of the South End community], and I hope they can look at me and understand I have been in their shoes and they can build a future for themselves here just like I did,” she said.
For more information on the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford and the programs they offer, visit https://www. bgchartford.org/.