Time to hit the links to help the B&G Club

PLYMOUTH — As the country begins to work on recovery from the COVID pandemic many non-profits that provide much-needed services to the community are working to get back on their feet.

Since its beginning, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Marshall County has been a big part of the lives of many kids and families and with the pandemic taking away much of their fundraising opportunities, they are working to keep those services at the level they have always been.

Its first fundraiser of the year will begin in a few weeks.

“This year we are kind of in a blind spot because we had to push all our fundraisers to the end of the year instead of February and March like normal,” said Andrew Fitzpatrick, Director of the Boys & Girls Club. “We just don’t know how they are going to work out.”

Luckily golf is back to June like normal,” he said of the first big event on the schedule. “Hopefully — weather permitting — we will have a nice turnout. We’re a little nervous. Hopefully, we’ll have a good year.

The Boys & Girls Club will host its outing on June 17 at Pretty Lake Golf Club. The range will open at 10 a.m. with lunch available at 11:30 a.m.

The four-person scramble will begin at noon with dinner at 5 p.m.

In addition, the Club will be starting another golf-related fundraiser in just a few weeks.

“We are going to start selling raffle tickets on May 1 for a package for four people to go play at the French Lick Golf course and stay at the resort there,” said Fitzpatrick. “We are going to provide a certificate for dinner there too. We think our golfers will really enjoy this,” he said. “They talk about what a great course it is and getting down there to play once or twice a year. All they have to do is call or come to the club when we are open and they can purchase those raffle tickets.”

The total number of kids at the Boys & Girls Club has been down but for safety reasons more than anything else.

“We’ve had less kids (attending the Club) but only because we’ve been doing social distancing and putting them in pods,” said Fitzpatrick. “With our staff and our budget, there is no way we could have had the normal amount of kids in this building and continue to social distance.”

“We are at about 60-65 percent of what we normally have,” he said. “However we have been gradually adding that back in so by summer we ought to be back up to some normal numbers.”

The demand for the services the Club provides has not gone down, however.

“We have parents on a waiting list,” said Fitzpatrick. “They call often and they understand. They are just anxious to get their kids going and have us get back to normal.”

“I know we will see more kids for sure in the summer,” he said. “PRE-COVID we had pretty high traffic before July 4. We would average about 160-180 a day and a high day would be close to 200. We are pretty sure this summer we will get close to that. There

will be a high demand. We will just have to navigate it.”

“More than likely we will still do the masks, and of course cleanliness, keeping everything really clean,” said Fitzpatrick. “Not everybody is getting vaccinated, so we are trying to account for those situations where those families haven’t been vaccinated and we just want everybody to be safe around each other.”

The Club is also working to alleviate another Covid-related difficulty, the need for staff.

“We’ve had staff that were sick from time to time or in quarantine,” said

Fitzpatrick. “We aren’t like the school system. We don’t have substitutes that we can just call up and have them take somebody’s place for the day.

“We’ve been working with the schools to maybe get some kind of list together of people we could call on,” he said. “That would help us tremendously.”

While the need for funding programs has not diminished the uncertain times have caused scheduling changes in traditional fundraisers for the Boys & Girls Club.

“We moved our February fundraiser to Sept. 11 at Swan Lake,” said Fitzpatrick. “Our big Bremen fundraiser that we’ve had during March Madness we moved to Oct. 9 this year.”

“We do our annual fund in the summer right before July 4 and that runs to mid-august. That will be the same.”

Raffle tickets for the overnight golf outing at French Lick will be on sale on May 1. To purchase those simply call the Boys & Girls Club, 574-9360660.

Registration for the June 17 golf outing is also underway and to register contact event co-chairs Sue Payne 574339-6119 or Dale Cramer 574-780-2710.