Summer a blast for Boys & Girls

Like many kids in the summer, Jessica LeBlanc grows tired of days spent lounging on a couch in front of a TV. That’s how she spent much of last summer, and it’s what she’s seen many of her friends do since school let out three weeks ago.

“They just sit around and play video games all day or go on the computer, which gets boring,” the 13-year-old said.

That’s why she welcomes opportunities like the ones at the new Boys & Girls Club program at Lakes Middle School.

“It’s better than just sitting inside and being bored,” LeBlanc said. “It’s about time I got tan.”

LeBlanc joined about 15 other middle school-aged kids for activities Monday at the Coeur d’Alene school. This is the first summer the Boys & Girls Club has offered activities in North Idaho. The games and activities going on five afternoons a week provide a preview of what could become a standard part of Kootenai County if supporters of a Boys & Girls Club in Post Falls meet their fundraising goals.

The group has about $1 million of its $2.9 million goal and hopes to announce a major donation in the next few weeks.

“We’ve got lots of things in the pipeline we think are going to show themselves in the summer,” said Cort Wilcox, president of the Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County.

Little money has been raised in the past few months, but supporters hope that will change now that The Salvation Army Kroc Community Center fundraising campaign is complete.

“We’re pretty optimistic; it’s just we’re behind where we’d like to be,” Wilcox said.

The Post Falls School District will work with the city of Post Falls to transfer several acres of land behind the library to use for the Boys & Girls Club.

District Superintendent Jerry Keane said they’re waiting for more details on the building plan from the group before the land transfer is finalized.

He said the club will bring needed activities to an area where young people have little to do.

“That’s something we’ve needed in this community for a long, long time,” Keane said.

One of the biggest keys to a successful fundraiser is educating the community about what the Boys & Girls Club is and how it could change opportunities for youth, said Ryan Davis, the program’s executive director.

Gwynn Crabtree, who heads the program at Lakes, said many people initially think of the Boys & Girls Club as a day-care center.

“It’s not a day care,” she said as she stood on the asphalt court, supervising a running competition.

“Day care caters to parents,” Davis said. “The Boys & Girls Club caters to kids.”

About 50 kids are signed up this summer for activities at Lakes. For $10, kids get four hours of activities five days a week until Aug. 17.

The day begins at noon with a walk to nearby Bryan Elementary School for lunch. Games, outdoor competitions, arts and crafts, field trips and guest speakers fill the rest of the time.

“It’s an amazing thing, really, for the kids,” Crabtree said.

Davis said Lakes Principal Chris Hammons pitched the school as a location for the summer program because of the number of kids living in the 15th Street area who run around unsupervised in the summer.

But the kids who show up aren’t all from the neighborhood. Some are from across town; others are from Post Falls, Hayden or other outlying areas, Davis said.

Attendance isn’t mandatory – kids can drop in as they please.

“They are junior high kids, so it’s sporadic,” Davis said.

LeBlanc, who will be an eighth-grader at Woodland Middle School this fall, said she knows only one of the program regulars from school. The others were all strangers to her before the program began.

“New people come every day,” she said. “It’s getting bigger and bigger.”