Weekly Media Roundup: September 22, 2021

Staying Active: McAllen Club Navigating COVID Fears, Funding Cuts, The Monitor (Texas) 

With strong community support, the Boys and Girls Club of McAllen, Texas has been able to keep its doors open throughout the pandemic. “Financially, the local community has stepped up,” Dalinda Gonzalez-Alcantar, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of McAllen, told the Monitor. “I will also say that the city of McAllen has stepped up, and also McAllen ISD.” With the additional funding, the program has continued to serve approximately 1,000 students a day at its afterschool programs and 1,500 children at its athletic programs.

After-School Program Cultivates Safe, Brave Space to Nurture Healthy and Positive Growth for Young Leaders, Las Cruces Sun News (New Mexico)

The Tloke Nauoke After School Program at Raíces del Saber Xinachtli Community School in Las Cruces, New Mexico, leverages community partnerships to help students explore their interests and learn new skills from 3-6 p.m. each weekday. For example, students participate in hands-on activities in the school’s community garden led by the La Semilla Food Center and by Chef Mateo Herrara, who shares lessons about growing maíz. “Tloke Nauoke After School Program offers extracurricular activities created to nurture positive identity formation, allowing the Youth to express themselves in unique ways to their individual needs and identities,” Coordinator Anita Lara wrote in a guest column for the Las Cruces Sun News. “The program's curriculum is a visionary response to the call for reformative and social justice change.”

After-School Program Seeing Success at Lima West Middle School, Hometown Stations (Ohio)

At the Lima West Middle School afterschool program in Lima, Ohio, students get academic support, garden, work with hydraulics, learn about healthy living and more. Ohio State House of Representatives Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima) recently visited the program to speak with eighth graders about what they’re learning. Doors Academy CEO Dorothy Moulthrop told Hometown Stations that students at the program are “exposed [to] opportunities they otherwise might not have. Which helps them figure out what they want to do in life and sometimes what they don’t want to do in life. They also make great friends in these programs, and they have the presence of a loving caring adult who mentors them and roots for them and makes them believe that they really can do anything.”

Griffin School District Partners with Boys & Girls Clubs of Thurston County to Open 8th Club Location, Thurston Talk (Washington)

Thanks to a new partnership, elementary and middle school students at Griffin School in Olympia, Washington are able to attend before and afterschool programs at their school. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Thurston County is opening its eighth location in the county and plans to offer academic support, exercise and snacks. “Utilizing space at Griffin School means we can serve more youth, provide fun and meaningful programs, and serve as an extension of the school day for more kids and families who need us,” Boys & Girls Clubs of Thurston County COO Shellica Trevino told Thurston Talk.