(Breaking news) Boys & Girls Club in Charles set to close Friday

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The sharp downturn in the economy that has been strangling the life out of nonprofits across the country has claimed another victim.

The Charles County unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maryland is set to close Friday because of a lack of funding and community support to continue to offer the program for children 6 to 18 at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School and New Hope Learning Center at Christian Family Baptist Church in La Plata, said Pamela Wilkerson, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Maryland club.

The news was delivered to parents as they dropped off their children Monday at the New Hope Learning Center.

Marbury resident Sasha Blake, a single mother who has five children enrolled in the program, said she was upset when she heard the news.

"I just found out," she said. "I'm devastated. I don't understand why it's going to close. So many children need this program in our community."

Blake said that she pays a membership fee of $25 for each of her kids to participate in the program – an affordable alternative to the high cost of other after school programs offered in the county.

"It's excellent," she said. "I signed all of my kids up for it. You can't beat the price. It's so hard to get all of them in a program because it costs so much."

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maryland, established in 1999, provides education and career development, arts, health and life skills, character and leadership development and sports and fitness programs to the area's most needy children, Wilkerson said. The Charles County unit of the club was established three years ago at Barnhart elementary and offers youngsters a chance to play in the Amateur Athletic Union basketball league.

The program at the elementary school was not doing well and about 18 months ago the program was split between Barnhart and New Hope Learning Center, Wilkerson said. About 55 to 60 children participate in the program and most of them attend the program at the New Hope center, she said.

The downturn in the economy has fatally injured an already ailing program in Charles County, Wilkerson said, adding that funds for the organization are raised through special events, private and business donations and $1,000 annual grants from the Charles County government.

The Calvert and St. Mary's units are faring better despite the economy, Wilkerson said. St. Mary's County offers the program at four elementary and one middle school. The program there is funded through a $336,000 annual Maryland Department of Education 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant administered through the St. Mary's County school system, said Mark Smith, coordinator of special programs for the school system.

About 500 children are enrolled in the St. Mary's County unit, Wilkerson said.

In addition, the county government sets aside $125,000 a year to help support the program, she said.

"We have a very strong partnership with the organization," Smith said. "It's an outstanding partnership. We're the experts at academics and they're the experts at running after school programs."

The Calvert County unit is not doing as well, but it is still struggling along, Wilkerson said. The organization receives a $100,000 annual 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant that is administered through the Calvert County school system. The rest of the funding for the program is gained from private and business donations, special events and grants.

About 250 kids are enrolled in the Calvert County unit that is offered at one elementary school, a teen center in Lusby and a facility in North Beach, Wilkerson said.

The Charles County unit simply does not have the financial backing to continue operation, Wilkerson said.

"During the last three years we have received very little support for the program," she said Monday. "The challenge is we don't have enough funds to keep the unit operational. We're being hit like a lot of nonprofits across the country."

There is one full-time director and three part-time employees at the New Hope Learning Center unit, Wilkerson said.

"We're looking at ways to cut cost in spending and ways to restructure the unit to deal with the economic challenges that we're facing, but we need the community's support," she said. "We have to raise all of our funds locally. The Boys & Girls Clubs of American do not provide any funding for local units."

The Rev. James Powell, pastor of Christian Family Baptist Church, said that the club provides invaluable services to the needy children in his community. The church provides the space for the club rent-free.

"This program is of the utmost importance to the children in our community," he said Monday. "Our kids are being left behind. We're trying to teach them and their parents that they've got to prepare for the future and that means we've got to educate our kids so they can compete with anybody."

Among the services provided through the Boys & Girls Clubs is a reading and computer skills program, Powell said.

"The organization has got the same agenda that the church has," he said. "We've been using their resources to offer reading and computer programs to the children."

Powell said that he is a staunch supporter of keeping the unit alive in Charles County, adding that he is going to work with the organization to establish a Charles County Boys & Girls Club.

"My proposal is going to be to go to the national organization and see if we can create our own club here," he said. "If we don't help these kids now we're going to lose them and then we're going to be lost," he said. "I would do almost anything to keep the Boys & Girls Club unit here in Charles County."

La Plata resident Rose Burns, a single mom, has three children enrolled in the unit at New Hope Learning Center. Her daughter, Brittany Burns, serves as the president of the club.

Burns said that she will have to leave her children, ages 15, 13 and 10, at home after school with her parents checking in on them once the unit closes.

The thought is very disconcerting, Burns said.

"There are so many kids who are left on their own in my neighborhood," she said. "With my kids enrolled in the club I can be at work and know that they're safe and learning with supervision. I just want my kids to be in a positive, safe atmosphere where they won't get in trouble."

The club also offers a lot of weekend activities for the children, Burns said.

"There are so many positive things about it," she said. "It's a good thing."

Charles County Commissioner Samuel N. Graves Jr. (D) said that the organization is one of many nonprofits that are struggling to keep their doors open during these rough economic times.

"It saddens me to hear that it's closing," he said. "Children need these types of programs during these difficult times, but all nonprofits are struggling right now. I wish that there was a magic bullet to help them."

Wilkerson said that she will continue to try to find a way to keep the unit alive in Charles County, but time is running out.

"We're in the 11th hour so I'm going into the community to try to raise some support for us," she said. "I'm really appealing to the community to help us out because we're looking at a real funding crisis."

nmcconaty@somdnews.com