$500K city grant to help Boys & Girls Clubs
Central Ohio groups expanding services thanks to the money
The circumstances that brought Ariyah Croom and Marcus Griffin to the Boys & Girls Clubs’ Reeb Avenue Center on the South Side were much different, but it didn’t take long for the two to become fast friends.
Croom, 17, enrolled at the club in spring 2020 because her stepfather didn’t want her to fall behind with her school work when classes went virtual at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Griffin, 14, resides most of the year in Virginia, but has attended the club for four years while visiting his intown father during summers.
The teens have grown close this summer – as they have with the many new friends they’ve made – and say they’ve found in the Boys & Girls Club a haven full of constructive activities and empathetic teachers who understand the difficult home life that many of their peers face outside the building.
“I like being able to see my friends and experience meeting new people,” said Croom, an incoming senior at Columbus Africentric Early College K-12. “I have the luxury of coming here and getting out of the house.”
Located inside the Reeb Avenue Center, the Boys & Girls Club’s South Side operation is one of seven in central Ohio that provides a lifeline to often
creative and acknowledge the differences and similarities between groups and to meet people where they are,” she said.
Some of the efforts include: • Providing free admission to children 6 to 16 to all 2021-22 Masterworks subscription concerts;
• Providing free admission to patrons accompanying or assisting attendees with disabilities;
• Performing at least eight concerts in outlying communities throughout the Appalachian region and other rural locations;
• Offering free tickets for veterans, active-duty military members and their families to attend all 2021-22 Masterworks concerts;
• Accommodating health care workers, first responders and frontline employees with free admission vouchers to attend any 2021-22 Masterworks concert;
• Doubling the number of Young People’s Concerts presented during the 2021-22 season and offering free tickets to all Title 1 elementary schools;
• Doubling in-school concerts as compared to the 2019-20 school year;
• Increasing free, on-site events at central Ohio senior living facilities by 30%;
• Beginning a free outdoor concert series in Columbus city parks
Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin said the symphony’s campaign is even more important given the piercing effects of the pandemic, which hit under-resourced communities that much harder.
“To have an organization like the Columbus Symphony to open their doors and say, ‘This is for you and we are here for you,’ is so important as we come out of the pandemic and we come back together as a community.”
Although the symphony provided a host of creative concerts during the pandemic, Rehg said: “We Are Here for You” will make the orchestra the most accessible and inclusive its been in its 70-year history.
Rehg hopes to set a new standard for organizations across the country to follow.
“Twenty years from now, we want to hear from people saying we made a difference for them as children. It is very meaningful to us.
“We’re going to continue to figure out ways to expand the opportunities. There will be more in 2022-2023 and there will be more in 2023-2024.”
ehopkins@dispatch.com