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Cooksley takes helm at Boys and Girls Club

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RONAN  – Aric Cooksley is a man with a short-term plan for meeting the immediate needs of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County Boys and Girls Club and an emerging long-term vision for its growth and sustainability.

Cooksley became chief professional officer and executive director for the club in January, following in the big footsteps of former director John Schnase.

“A couple of things we really liked about Aric is that his heart is set on helping children,” Shad Hupka, club board member said. “That’s his passion and obviously it is very important to us as well. That was one obvious characteristic he had. The other was his enthusiasm.”

Cooksley returned to Ronan last year after running a trucking business in the oil fields of North Dakota for two years. Prior to that, Cooksley worked for Upward Bound in the Ronan School District. Returning to Ronan was always the goal of the Cooksley family, which includes wife, Melody, and twin 3-year-old daughters Ali and Ella. Cooksley said he was lucky there was an opening at the Boys and Girls Club.

“In many ways this is a dream job for me because it takes a lot of pieces of things that I have done and things that I enjoy and puts them together all in one package,” Cooksley said.

The gig requires social skills plus fundraising, leadership, childcare, and construction planning, all of which Cooksley has used separately in the past.

“It’s definitely a learning process, because I haven’t used all those pieces in the same job, but at the same time it’s also a learning process because you are learning what the needs are,” Cooksley said.

One long-term need for the club is new spaces for both the Ronan and Polson branches. The Ronan branch will be demolished to make way for the expansion of Highway 93 in the coming years. The club serves between 60 and 80 children at the Ronan branch and will likely be able to remain in the building through 2015.

“Very soon we will be working on putting together a capital campaign and looking at our different options,” Cooksley said. “Do we have to buy something and go through the process of remodeling?  Do we want to acquire land in some way and build?”

In Polson, a different issue is at hand. The space in the basement of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church is too small to allow growth of the club, which serves between 25 and 40 children daily.

“They have been very generous with us, but for that club to meet the needs of the community, it really needs a much larger space,” Cooksley said.

New space leaves room for more than physical growth.

“With that comes a lot of ability to expand what we’re doing programming-wise so that we are the place where parents want their kids to be, regardless of if they need them here because they are working in the after-school (hours) or just because we provide such good opportunities,” Cooksley said.

Currently, the Ronan branch starts the afternoon off with an afternoon snack, an hour of homework time, and 30 minute sessions engaging in activities like Lego building, computer time, or other activities. In other parts of the United States, Boys and Girls Clubs have much more extensive programming, such as full-fledged after-school arts and drama programs.

“Think of anything you can do with kids and there’s a Boys and Girls Club somewhere in the states that is doing that,” Cooksley said. “The opportunities to meet those needs in this community are endless.”

Cooksley hopes enough people see the larger vision for the club. “We’re not just a place where ‘Oh, we drop the kids off and they get a little bit of academic tutoring and it’s a good place for them to stay while I work,’” he said.

In the long-term, Cooksley wants the Boys and Girls Club to be an integral part of the community.

 “I want the Boys and Girls Club to be the place people want their kids because … we are offering something to them that is valuable to them, and to the community,” Cooksley said. “I think we currently are, but I think that value can be really increased as we move forward.”

As Cooksley and the Boys and Girls Club’s board of directors work toward formulating this vision, there are immediate needs to be met. One is financial support for the club. A campaign is underway to raise $480,000 each year by asking the equivalent of 2,000 families per year to donate $20 per month to the club. Sustainable contributions will allow the club to remain fiscally sound and increase community involvement, according to Cooksley.

The stakes for the campaign are high.

“This club really affects our youth,” Cooksley said. “This club serves more youth in our community, other than the school system, than anyone else and basically than all of the other organizations combined.”

To find out how to donate to the club, call (406) 676-5437 or (406) 883-0521.

 

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