Boys and Girls Club honors founders, supporters
Linda Sappington
John Schnase, former director of the Boys and Girls Club, stands with his mother, Katherine. The family was honored for their committment to the local club.
Linda Sappington
Club members sing in the Mission Mountain Children’s Choir during the Great Futures Breakfast.
Linda Sappington
Founders Shelly Fyant, left, and Dana Grant are honored by Boys and Girls Club Executive Director Aric Cooksley, center, and Board Chariman Brenda Dennis.
Linda Sappington
Linda Sappington
Linda Sappington
Linda Sappington
Linda Sappington
Linda Sappington
Linda Sappington
Linda Sappington
Linda Sappington
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Twenty years ago a handful of people came together with a common goal: Give children a place to go where they feel warm, safe and cared for.
Two decades later, the Boys and Girls Club of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County is bursting at the seams in both Ronan and Polson locations.
“Our desire is to serve the kids who need us most, like our mission statement says,” Director Aric Cooksley said during the second annual Great Futures Breakfast, sponsored by the KwaTaqNuk on Feb. 10. Children who attend the Club can come from a challenging economic environment or simply need a safe structure and enriching place to be, he added.
Last summer the club chose to be open all day, serving 70-130 children in Ronan and 40-55 in Polson. The club tallied roughly 70,000 hours caring for youths through various enrichment programs while serving 21,000 meals 19,000 snacks — all for just $5 per month during the school year and $25 per month in the summer.
The local Boys and Girls Club is much more than just a place to send kids after school. The youths are learning responsibility and leadership.
Ninety-five percent of children who attend the local club are on track to graduate high school on time, according to Linda Wiltse, the national Boys and Girls Club director of organizational development for native services; 80 percent of those children who graduate are expecting to go on to college.
Last year youths across the nation searched for summer jobs. National statistics report only 32 percent of youth in U.S. found a job, but 84 percent of the local Boys and Girls Club members were successful in finding summer employment.
Nationwide, the local club is in the top 10 percent in strategic growth, top 15 percent in board effectiveness, and top 20 percent in every category overall, according to Wiltse. For all the native clubs across the nation, the local club is number one in all categories, and 100 percent of local club members said they are learning leadership skills.
“Your organization really is a shining example of what Boys and Girls Clubs should be,” Wiltse said. “Kids want to come ... Kudos to you.”
When children come to the Boys and Girls Club after school, they get academic mentoring during Power Hour.
“It’s a fun, safe place to go, and I get my homework done there,” said Daniel Bishop, a 12-year-old who has been attending for five years.
Children embrace healthy lifestyles through physical activity and diabetes prevention programs while they challenge new skills.
“I learned how good I am at things, like hula hoop,” Justice Moore, 13, said. “I didn’t know I was that good.”
Character, leadership and responsibility are also ingrained every day and modeled through the staff and volunteers’ actions.
“I learned to be respectful to people older than me, and they taught me how to be good,” Bishop said.
A strong role model during his nine years as director, John Schnase was honored at the breakfast alongside his mother, Katherine Schnase, who set up an endowment fund for long-term sustainability with specific guidelines that the money put in the fund will not be touched; only the interest is eligible to be used for the club’s needs.
“The Katherine Schnase Endowment Fund is the catalyst to ensure great futures for our children and their children,” Boardmember Janette Rosman said.
For 96 years Katherine has been “a mentor for all the people around her,” John Schnase added.
John Schnase recalled growing up in Ronan with three siblings, all sharing two bunk beds in one room, surrounded by love and hard work. The siblings rose before dawn to milk cows and still make it to the bus on time.
Love and nurturing are important, he said, but so is responsibility.
“Let’s give (children) some self-worth by giving them responsibility,” he said. “Let’s teach them how to be responsible for things … Be a good example, and they will love you forever for it.”
While the program is growing strong, the facilities are too small to keep up with the demand. The good news is that land is available for the club to build larger facilities.
In Polson, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center has set aside 1.8 acres of land near Polson Middle School for the local Boys and Girls Club to build their own facility. They currently hold club activities in the basement of St. Michael’s Episcopalian Church.
In Ronan, the club building has been leased from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes for just $1 per year. But in 2018 the highway couplet is scheduled to be developed right through the Ronan center.
The Tribes recently purchased acreage north of K. William Harvey Elementary School with plans to build a Ronan Community Center. The project, in its design phase, includes sports fields, a central gathering hub, a gymnasium with an indoor walking and running track and a fitness center.
“(The Tribes) see a huge value in the children, so they have invited us to come and partner with them,” Cooksley said.
The design includes a space in the southwest section of the complex where the Club can build a new facility.
“We thought about that idea, bringing them into the fold, bringing them in as a participant in this facility,” said Jason Adams, who has been tasked to the project by the Tribal Council. Adams also facilitated the creation of the Arlee Community Center project in early 2000.
While the Club will need to raise funds to build their portion of the facility, the partnership will provide access to more on-site resources with the gymnasium and sports fields.
The Club’s successes through 20 years began with the folks who initially started the local club, and continued with the ongoing support of the community.
Two of the founders, Shelly Fyant and Dana Grant, attended the breakfast and received honors on behalf of additional founders that included Kathy Felsman, Les Big Crane and Velda Shelby. Before the local club opened its doors, the founders visited other clubs around the region to get ideas and help create the vision it is today.
“The boys and girls club should be a place where children … feel warm and cared for,” Grant said. “It’s not home, but it’s almost home.”
