Schools out, we’re in

We are so very excited about some staff changes at the Boys & Girls Club. Rachel Blume, our art room coordinator, welcomed a baby boy, Sawyer, and in six short years he will be joining the club like his big sister, Journey.

Brenda White, who is new to the area and a club mom, joins us to fill in and cover the art room in Rachel’s absence. She had been volunteering weekly at the club and is excited to meet more kids and continue helping the club.

In other big news, Youth of the Year Heidi O’Leary has been promoted from intern to Gym Coordinator. Her outstanding leadership skills, rapport with the kids and club knowledge make her the ideal candidate for the position. Heidi has a passion for lacrosse and is sure to have the gym buzzing with kids participating in a myriad activities.

Our club will be closed Friday, Aug. 31, until we re-open after the first day school on Sept. 5. We will be training new and existing staff and preparing for the school year.

We invite you all to an open house on Tuesday, Sept. 4. Come and tour the new rooms dedicated to our tweens/middle school-age members and the newly painted space the K-1 room for kindergarten and first-grade members. They moved to a bigger room and our tweens moved to the front of the club in the space adjoining the teen center. This change for the tweens will make it easier to staff the two rooms, allow for joint programs and give added supervised space to the teens after general membership hours.

Morning Camp

“Goosebumps” week – and we mean the book series, often includes monsters, mummies, ghosts, and all things creepy, and thus our week of activities did too.

We kicked off the week with dancing to the popular song, “Monster Mash.” Campers made monster s’mores and dirt out of pudding and crushed cookies. They ate them and the mummy pizzas made with string cheese and English muffins.

Art projects included making scarecrows from brown bags, painting paper and folding it in half to make symmetrical blobs, to which they added googly eyes. They created their own glow-in the dark slime.

The campers had spider races with small plastic spiders blowing them down the track with a straw. They wrapped up the week watching the “Goosebumps” movie and taking a thrilling field trip to Fort Flagler to explore the old gun batteries.

Junior Rangers

Unfortunately, the kids couldn’t take their usual trip to Olympic National Park this week because of poor air quality. Luckily we were able to reschedule the barbecue celebration and are hopeful to get our kids back outside enjoying the Pacific Northwest for their last week of summer.