Mud thrown at Van Buren Boys & Girls Club

The Van Buren Boys and Girls Club’s groundbreaking ceremony for the new $500,000 extension turned in to a “mud-breaking ceremony” instead, joked Chief Professional Officer Cindy Faldon on Thursday (Mar. 8).

The event, originally slated for outside, was moved into the onsite gymnasium as a result of a torrential downpour, but despite the change in venue, the club plowed ahead.

Among the honored guests at the event were donors Richard Hodo and his wife Helen, whose $200,000 contribution combined with a $150,000 United Way Community Outreach Grant to help make the 5,200 square-foot addition a reality.

“I don’t have any children or grandkids here, and I never went to one, because I wasn’t raised with it, but it’s so important to have a facility like this for our kids. I thought it was just a place where they could come to play basketball, but it’s more than that. They have computers here, and they’re getting these kids to learn when they could be out on the streets,” Richard Hodo said.

Referencing the Van Buren Boys and Girls Club's origins in 1958, Hodo continued: “For more than 50 years, there has been a desire and a love in this community for its children. All the different board members that have come through, and the board in now. It’s awesome.”

Hodo encouraged attendees of the event to “keep giving and volunteering.”

“It’s not about us. It’s about the kids. There will never be enough. This place will always need more,” he added.

Chief Visionary Officer Jim Petty doesn’t see the donations ending any time soon.

“Even though we have a budget, we have people donate in-kind services. The state legislature has helped us tremendously, as well as the Hodos and the United Way. There is just tremendous community support,” Petty said.

At the end of 2011, the Van Buren Boys and Girls Club reported 1,398 members. Since 2010, after school club visits have almost doubled, moving from 3,823 to 7,243 in 2012, with the highest day going from 115 to 205 over the same period of time. The number of teenagers enrolled in after school programs has risen from 13 in 2010 to 44 as of February.

“It is our organization’s mission to help all young people,” Faldon said. “Part of helping all young people is to give them a place they can call their own. This building and the expansion belong to the kids in our community.”