Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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Martinsville, Virginia 24115
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Grace McKinney, 9, helps paint the outside of the Boys & Girls Club Teen Center at Christ’s Church on Saturday morning. Grace was one of about 165 volunteers who spent the morning giving the building a makeover inside and out. (Bulletin photos by Kim Barto) |
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Sunday, April 26, 2009
By KIM BARTO - Bulletin Staff Writer
About 165 volunteers from different groups worked together Saturday morning to spruce up the Boys & Girls Club Teen Center in Martinsville.
What started as a plan to simply repaint a hallway and make some small improvements to the Teen Center quickly snowballed into a full-scale makeover of the building and grounds, said Comcast employee Will Koger. The work was done as part of Comcast Cares Day, an event sponsored by the company.
This is the second year local Comcast employees have participated in Comcast Cares Day. They chose to help the Boys & Girls Clubs “because of what they’re doing for the children,” said Koger, a club parent who spearheaded the volunteer efforts.
“This is the best place for a kid to be after school,” he said. “Every time I come to pick up my son, there’s always something going on.”
Comcast paid for hardware, supplies and contractors as well as supplying volunteers from offices as far away as Lynchburg, Danville and Roanoke. They joined with volunteers from many local organizations and businesses to make the project happen on Saturday morning.
Christ’s Church donates the space for the Teen Center in a building that used to house a nursery. Thus, one hallway used to be decorated with Care Bears. Originally, Koger said, the volunteers wanted to paint over the Care Bears to make the space more teen-friendly, as well as fixing some doors and installing new smoke detectors.
But as they learned of more needs and received interest from more people who wanted to help, Koger said, the scope of the project expanded.
“This shows what happens when people work together and partner to get things done,” said Bob Miller, founding board president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Blue Ridge, which serves this area.
The long list of people who lent a hand Saturday included Boys & Girls Club children, parents and board members, along with volunteers from Christ’s Church, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, the Boy Scouts, Carlisle School, CHILL Youth Task Force, Dan River Basin Association, Friends of Philpott, Henry County Schools, Henry-Martinsville Social Services, StarTek, and the Virginia Museum of Natural History.
Together, they cleaned up the grounds, redid the landscaping, fixed toilets, rebuilt decks, hung blinds on the windows and replaced flooring and lighting fixtures. Volunteers installed stones and gravel to make a pathway leading to the front door. They also repainted the outside of the building and gave every room a fresh paint job in bright colors chosen by the teens.
The club members helped prepare for the work earlier in the week by tearing up old flooring and moving furniture.
“I can’t wait until the kids come back Monday, to see their reactions,” clubs Executive Director Anne Frazier said as she walked through the building. “We want the kids, when they come to the club, to be proud of it.”
Buck Wardle, pastor of Christ’s Church, was one of about 40 volunteers from the church who helped out.
“We wanted to support the Boys & Girls Clubs because we really believe in what they’re doing,” Wardle said. “They’re changing kids’ lives, for the rest of their lives. This is without a doubt a worthy endeavor.”
Comcast will televise in May and June a 30-second advertising spot for the local Boys & Girls Clubs, created by 13-year-old club member Tyler Allen and starring many of his friends.
“Everybody inspired me to make it so creative,” said Tyler, who wrote and designed the video, which expands on the club theme of “Be Great.”
Seeing his video aired “feels really great,” Tyler said.
Not only did the local Boys & Girls Clubs get new and improved surroundings on Saturday, they also celebrated their new charter.
The local clubs used to fall under the Roanoke-based Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia, but in January, they became the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Blue Ridge, a new organization with a new charter.
Henry Saxon, regional service director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, presented Miller with the charter after the morning’s work was done.
“Establishing a club in this market was very critical,” Saxon said. “In 10 years, when we come back to celebrate the 10-year anniversary, hundreds of young men and women are going to stand before you and tell you how the club has changed their lives.” |
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