Summer Program Kick-Off Highlights

Our summer programs kicked off on June 12 and we currently have 499 youth enrolled at both sites. Of that total, there are about 300 youth walking through our doors and actively participating in programs DAILY! To provide a little more perspective – over 320 members attended the first day of summer programs, with 130 youth at Johnsonville Elementary, 100 in the Teen Center at Johnsonville and another 90 at the Theisen summer location. This total is an increase of 50 members over day one of summer 2022, and 34 higher than any summer day we had all of last year. Our program staff have been very busy and they have done an amazing job creating a fun and organized summer program for our Club members!

Here is a recap of a few of our favorite programs and activities throughout the first three weeks, including some fun from our National Boys & Girls Club Week celebrations throughout this week:

Our amazing partnership with First Tee continues to be incredibly valuable to our Club members. These kids absolutely love learning how to golf! Many kids also love music, and our Johnsonville 3rd graders are learning how to play the ukulele. Thank you to the wonderful Miss Siera for giving these kiddos such a wonderful opportunity. We also have 5th graders pairing up with 3rd graders for a “Reading Buddies” program throughout the summer, which has been fun for both the younger kids working on their reading skills and the older kids who get to mentor them.

One of our favorites things about summer is field trips. A group of our Club members took a great field trip to the Brillion Nature Center! What a wonderful place to explore and learn about nature. The Fond du Lac County Audubon Society made this experience possible for our youth, and they enjoyed every single minute of it!

Miss Aly and Miss Lizzi have been hard at work making sure all of our Club members have access to mental health support throughout the day and week. They provide social emotional learning programs and activities that help our youth substantially when it comes to their overall health and wellness. Mindfulness Monday in the Zen Den has been the perfect way to start off the week! In one exercise, members were guided through a full body scan to become more present, relaxed and understanding of their body and mind. They have also been enjoying Yoga Thursdays in the Zen Dens at both summer sites…from Tree Pose, to Boat Pose, to Egg Pose and more! 

Art Club and STEM projects have been very popular in our Teen Center. Some of our teens recently did a fun art activity called multi-media animal portraits. They painted the background and then created an animal out of clay to fit into the background. They love making camouflage butterflies to hide around the Club as well and when the weather is nice, they enjoy getting outside to create a few chalk drawings for some on the spot fun! They also had some fun with tie dye for “Let Your Colors Show” week (see article’s feature photo collage)! STEM in the Teen Center means plenty of fun projects each week. This past Friday’s project was an egg drop challenge. Some teens found the challenge to be a little over easy! HA! All jokes aside, we adults love STEM learning for our youth because we know it fosters creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and curiosity that growing minds need to thrive.

Miss Rachel, Program & Development Coordinator for the Solutions Center, spent some time teaching our teens all about red and green flags. This was part of our SMART Girls curriculum, which is a program our Club has available to youth all year round. The goal of this program is to help girls develop positive attitudes, build practical life skills and feelings of empowerment to become responsible adult women through health, prevention/education, and self-esteem enhancement activities.

All this talk about positivity is a reminder of how much our teens love and embrace Feel Good Fridays in the Teen Center. One of the best ways to feel good is to make others feel good. Last Friday, a group of Club teens walked downtown and wrote positive messages on the sidewalks for others to enjoy!

Lastly, the warm summer weather has us excited to be able to visit Taylor Pool and the Fond du Lac Fairgounds Park pool. However, the poor air quality isn’t helping us get #outdoorswithbgc for BGC Week, so we are making sure to have as much fun as possible with a lot of creative indoor activities. Obstacle courses, mini pizzas, shrinky dinks, popcorn and movies, and creating our very own Boys & Girls Club buildings! We are also spending time swimming in the pool over at the Fond du Lac Family YMCA. The YMCA is generously providing free swimming lessons to our Club members this summer. We are so thankful to have such a strong partnership in the community! 

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