Community builds great future for kids
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Rendering of future Boys and Girls Club in Polson, now under construction.
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News from the Boys and Girls Club
POLSON – People usually associate flowers and candy with Valentine’s Day gifts but one local county is showing its love with cranes, excavators and bulldozers.
The overwhelming love for the kids of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County inspired a community of 5,000 people as well as foundations and corporations like the Washington Foundation, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, Murdock Charitable Trust and the Greater Polson Community Foundation to come together to build great futures for kids, namely a new Boys and Girls Club center in Polson. Construction is underway for the new club slated to open its doors in September to over 200 youth a day. Over $4.8 million dollars have been raised towards the goal of $5,150,000 so far for the building that will serve as a community hub.
At the heart of the project are dedicated youth and teen centers, a commercial kitchen (the Club served 55,000 meals and snacks last year) and a basketball gymnasium. There will also be art, music and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) spaces as well as outdoor play spaces and a garden. The building was designed to maximize the potential to run programs that allow club members to flourish and set a foundation for a great future.
Although the Boys and Girls Club has been serving youth and families in the area since 1999, the Polson club was only able to serve 40 kids daily in a windowless church basement and long waiting lists prevented the club from serving all kids and families who needed them most.
Everyone is invited and encouraged to share the love and help finish off this project by sending a donation to: The Boys and Girls Club of the Flathead Valley and Lake County, P.O. Box 334, Ronan, MT 59864. For more information, contact Aric Cooksley, executive director, at 406-493-2312.
