THE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB
UDJ Spring Fund Drive is here!
Readers of the Ukiah Daily Journal know that for years, we have sponsored a Spring Fund Drive for the Boys and Girls Club of Ukiah.
This year, we are proud to once again highlight the great work of the Club, which has been serving Ukiah area youth for over 25 years. Our goal for this year's drive is $100,000.
For over 10 years, the club's executive Director, Julie Whalen has been an active member of the Club family as both a Board Member and volunteer. As a 40year member of the Ukiah community, many folks know Whalen for her longtime work at North Coast Opportunities.
“Other opportunities took Kim, our previous executive director back to her home state. We wish her well,” says Whalen, who took up the position in January.
“Post-pandemic, our program has really roared back to life. We had about 30 daily members enrolled during the peak of Covid. Today we're averaging about 140.” The Boys and Girls Club has about 300 kids on their roster, with about 100 kids participating in their daily summer program.
“81 percent of our members live at or below the poverty line,” Whalen continues. “We did the math, and we're at a 52 percent Latino population.” The Club offers arts, multimedia programs, sports and fitness, tutoring, snacks, STEM, healthy living and life skills, character and leadership development, a homework “power hour,” and social-emotional support- all in an environment of safety, fun and creativity.
Every day, for 4 hours during the school year and for 9 hours in summer, kids from pre-K to high school spend time with 13 staff persons and volunteers committed to supporting every Boys and Girls Club “member” through mentoring, mirroring positive behaviors and encouraging kids in self- expression and leadership. The Club is also grateful for other volunteers who support the Club in many ways.
“God bless our amazing community service clubs,” says Whalen. “The Lions Club cooks every year for our Crab Feed. Just last week, the South Ukiah Rotary Club provided breakfasts and lunches for our Spring Break program. We flipped flapjacks for 60 kids yesterday,” she smiles.
Once weekly, Sage Mountainfire visits the Club with her therapy dog. “A couple of our students really want to spend more time with Sage, so we've incorporated story time into her visits, which is working out wonderfully,” Whalen continues.
Braelyn Hofstetter, 16, a Ukiah High Junior, claps her hands rhythmically. The 20 or so young ones in her care stop what they're doing and clap back. “It's time for our Egg Hunt!” she calls out. The children line up outside their ded
icated classroom and wait patiently for her to give instructions. She lets the children loose. The hunt is on, and in about 7 minutes, every child has found at least a couple of eggs and some quality chocolate mini bunnies. No fighting over eggs or chocolate occurred. No sad faces about who got more or less eggs. The kids are happy and content.
Hofstetter is responsible for the Club's Kinder and Pre-K, 4-through- 6year- olds. Prior to working here, Hofstetter worked at the Ukiah Summer Safari Day Camp. She completed the Child Development pathway at Ukiah High and was a Teacher's Assistant for a 2nd grade class last year. “I'm planning on going into Early Childhood Development and Education,” she notes.
“I have the day split up by subjects. With homework, I create lesson plans to teach. We have a library and lots of tools for math.” She likes to figure out what the challenge areas are with “her kids.”
“I have a child who struggles to write her name, so that's what I work with her on. If there's a child with disabilities or other struggles, I work closely with their parent to try and figure out what is going to work best for them.”
It's the personal connection to the children that brings the most joy to Hofstetter's job.
“They just swarm me trying to give me hugs,” she smiles. “I'm like a teacher to them, but knowing that these kids feel safe with you and want to be around you is really special.”
Christian Cruz is the Club's Site Supervisor. He is still seeing emerging challenges based on the long period of isolation that many children experienced during the pandemic.
“As a teacher myself, I've observed that a lot of our kids are behind a grade level- which adds to where they were at previously. In some cases they were even further behind,” he explains. “This is something we've helped address with tutoring. We're starting to see more and more kids staying on task with their assignments as they get the homework help they need during our Power Hour. I feel we have the staff and the programming to address these needs.”
“There is a lot of potential to expand the program from where we are right now,” Cruz continues. “We need to create more structured, high- quality programs, and that takes money.” He would like to see the fund drive support the purchase of musical instruments.
“We have quite a few ukuleles, but we need an instructor,” says Whalen. “We have been visualizing some drums- because every kid can learn to keep time- and harmonicas- because they're so portable,” she says.
“We would like to have more resources to entice more teens into the club to explore what we have to offer,” says Cruz. “We want teens to know this is a safe, fun space for them to hang out, play and just be a kid.” Studies have repeatedly shown that teens are most vulnerable to negative influence in the hours after school and before they return home. The Club continues to be perfectly positioned to provide teens wholesome and creative alternatives- all they have to do is walk through the door.
“We're looking for volunteers to provide special needs training in the community. We're looking for volunteers to help with gardening, music and the arts,” says Whalen.
A successful fund drive will help staff create a moveable decompression space- something necessary for all children, but particularly those with special needs. “We haven't come up with the final design, but we're thinking of using something like partitions, outfitted with be exercise balls, weighted blankets, headphones, fidgets, sensory fiber optics and maybe a tent-like structure,” Whalen continues.
Whalen was recently on a conference with her national counterparts.
“It turns out we are the only Club in the country that is the beneficiary of a newspaper-based fund drive,” she explains. “We are so fortunate that we have this support, and I thank the community in advance for your generosity.”
The bottom line: every non-profit organization is feeling the pinch created by higher costs for everything- rent, fuel, utilities, food and program supplies. Whalen estimates costs have risen close to 30%. “Where would these children go after school without our Club?” Whalen asks. “What would our working parents do without our tutors and mentors to help children with homework after school? I don't know if there is truly a way to quantify what is provided here, but for only a few hundred dollars per child per year, our Club members are being well prepared for an intellectual, social and emotional future in a way that does not exist anywhere else in our region.”
The drive goal this year remains the same as 2023: $65,000. We kick off with several generous donations, including: Suzie Hardie in memory of Bob Hardie $5000; Rod & Josie Vargas $5000; Savings Bank of Mendocino County $2000; Peter & Gloria Halstad $150; Lois Jacobs $45; Bob & Lynn Dress-Meadows $25; Richard & Marcia Venne $50; First Christian Church $100; Denise Gorny $25, for a total of $12,395
Donations can be sent to Boys and Girls Club of Ukiah, P.O. Box 67, Ukiah, CA 95482. Donations can also be dropped off at the UDJ office at 415A Talmage Road.