By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Like most organizations shut down by the pandemic, the Boys and Girls Club of Hutchinson is preparing to reopen its services to youth in the area.
“We’re going to open up two locations on June 15,” Skip Wilson announced. “We’ll have a site over at Avenue A for second and third graders and then fourth, fifth and sixth graders can come over to the Shadduck Park facility.”
Wilson says it was hard to not have the students on-site during the pandemic, but did find inventive ways to stay connected.
“We did the virtual learning . . . through our website with our different programs,” Wilson said. “We’re such a mentoring program and we’re all about building relationships so it was really hard. I think the most popular thing for us that we think made the most difference was we had vision leaders calling our members.”
Wilson said that also included on-site visits through the screen door just to check up on youth.
Wilson says they will be providing programs for students to make sure they keep learning during the summer months.
“This summer we’re definitely going to institute Brain Game. It’s a summer program that basically helps the kids through fun activities and fun games to keep their learning up and get them ready for when school hopefully kicks off,” Wilson said. “Field trips will take on a whole different look. We’re still working on that . . . how many can we actually put in a vehicle, so there’s still a few things to work out.”
Wilson said that some field trips, including the annual trip to the pool, will not be held this year because of gathering restrictions in place.