(ROCKWALL COUNTY, TX – June 10, 2015) With several exciting core programs and a new president at its helm, perhaps there’s no better place for kids to spend the summer than at the Boys and Girls Club of Rockwall County.
The Rockwall BGC fired up its fresh and innovative summer programs on June 8 for the first time under its new president and former Chief Professional Officer of the Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Texas, Jenny Krueger. The Rockwall BGC officially merged with the BGC of Northeast Texas back in January as a means of cutting costs while expanding on programming for youth.
As part of its core programming for the summer, the Rockwall BGC introduced a brand new program in Summer Brain Gain. The program – adopted last summer by the BGC of Northeast Texas and implemented for the first time this summer by the Rockwall BGC – will offer project-based learning through a curriculum designed specifically to help prevent summer learning loss for kids.
“What we’re trying to do with our Summer Brain Gain program is address that issue and make sure that kids can retain the knowledge that they gained over the course of the school year, so that they can start the next school year at least in the same place that they ended the school year before,” Jenny said. “We consider our goals accomplished if they don’t take that step backwards in the summer.”
The program will run from 9 a.m. to noon each weekday and will offer different themes every week, as well as productive activities such as science experiments and drop everything and read time so that kids can retain the knowledge they learned over the previous school year all summer long.
Kids can also stay active and healthy with the Triple Play Program designed to teach kids how to keep a healthy mind, body and soul. Jenny said the idea behind the program revolves around helping kids with the social aspect of recreation, where they can learn certain skills and good sportsmanship while also having the opportunity to apply these things in activities like tournaments.
“The name of the game right now is taking what we’ve been doing and taking it to the next level,” Jenny said. “We’re making sure we’re using curriculum that targets the needs of our kids, that everything is results-oriented and that we can measure the success of our kids.”
With so many different educational and recreational activities available for kids at the Rockwall BGC this summer, it might be easy to overlook the fact that the BGC also serves as a highly-effective prevention center for kids, helping them to avoid harmful things like drugs and alcohol while building their leadership skills and offering plenty of opportunities to give back to their community.
For example, with its Smart Moves Program, the BGC can help its younger children with self-esteem-building and anti-bullying exercises, and for the older kids address risky behaviors such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco and premature sexual activity head on. Best of all, the BGC receives some funding to support the program from the state government, which helps monitor each child 9 years and older within the program in order to see if they have any run-ins with the juvenile justice system. According to Jenny, since 2008 there have been over 9,000 kids that have gone through the Smart Moves program and none of them have had any run-ins with the juvenile justice system.
“That tells you what we’re doing with this Smart Moves program is working,” Jenny said. “We’re keeping these kids out of trouble and addressing these types of risky behaviors.”
Kids this summer can also get involved in The Torch Club – a leadership group within the Rockwall BGC that offers youth the ability to make decisions and play a role in things that happen around the club. The service-oriented program also sees those who take part in it participate in many volunteer projects throughout the community.
“We’ve had a very strong Torch Club here in the past, and we want to keep that going and have kids out there serving the community, giving back to the community that gives back to them,” Jenny said.
Other activities involved in this year’s summer programming at the Rockwall BGC include swimming, weekly visits to the public library and a couple big field trips.
The club will offer free public tours of the facility every Tuesday throughout the summer at noon and 5:30 p.m. A Meet-and-Greet on June 23 at 5:30 p.m. will also give folks the chance to meet Jenny and see firsthand all of the projects and fun activities involved in the club’s summer programs.
So far, over 200 kids have signed up for the summer program, with a waiting list of 45 kids and counting. The club expects an average daily attendance of over 150 children for its summer program.
To sign up your child for the summer program at the Rockwall BGC, contact the club at 972-722-2462.
By Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News reporter.
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