Boys & Girls Club continues to provide assistance to children during pandemic

Pictured: Boys & Girls Club members are pictured in front of a club bus that delivers lunches to about 65 youth twice a week. These members attend a program at the Northampton Fire and Rescue Station in Nassawadox that provides academic instruction, supervised activities and lessons on health precautions in a safe setting.

Staff member Ivy Bundick works with 6-year-old Jaclyn while another Boys & Girls Club staff member does a classroom assignment on a computer.

By Bill Sterling

The Boys & Girls Club of the Eastern Shore, with the help of the Northampton Fire and Rescue Station, located in Nassawadox, has recently been providing academic support, guidelines on health precautions and socialization skills for about 15 children twice a week under the guidance of executive director Kathy Custis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly disrupted school schedules, creating stressful situations for parents and children who depended on schools for not only education, but also nutritious meals and supervised activities while the parents are at work. In the past year schools have either offered virtual instruction only or adopted a hybrid schedule, where students would attend classes two days a week.

To help fill that void, the Boys & Girls Club has offered its members in person academic instruction and provided youth a safe place to be while parents were at work.

In pre-pandemic times, the Boys & Girls Club met after school at Occohannock Elementary School and had an average daily attendance of 70 kids. Youth received a hot meal, academic tutoring and lessons on life skills in the areas of health, finance and responsibility.

“I have missed our children so much since the club had to stop meeting due to COVID-19 concerns,” said Custis, now in her 16th year as director of the local Boys & Girls program. “Meeting here at the firehouse is like going back home again for me and my staff. We are so appreciative to Jim LeCato and the Northampton Fire and Rescue Station for allowing us to use the firehouse.”

The firehouse has two large rooms for activities and an adjoining kitchen. The Boys & Girls Club is using its own equipment such as video screens,

Boys & Girls Club members play a video game during a break from completing classroom assignments.

computers and other materials and is paying for the additional cost of utilities. The club first used the Nassawadox station at the holidays last December to hand out presents to members that were donated by a group from across the bay.

Jim LeCato, chief and president of the Northampton Fire and Rescue Station Inc. for the past 35 years, said, “We are a community organization happy to help another community organization doing something positive. We are not able to hold bingo games with COVID-19 concerns and were only using the building for a monthly meeting, so this is a good use for the space we have. I wish we could provide the station without any cost, but we are a volunteer organization that depends on donations, so we do need to have to charge for the added costs in utilities.”

LeCato added, “I was impressed with the dedication Kathy Custis has for the Boys & Girls Club and the love she has for those kids.”

The youth attending the Boys & Girls Club program start arriving at 7:30 and can stay as late as 5:30, allowing many parents to drop their children off going to work and pick them up following work. Every child and staff member entering the building has their temperature checked three times daily and wear masks at all times. Tables are wiped clean every hour. Children bring their own school-supplied computers, and the Boys & Girls program has additional computers available. The youth also bring their own lunches, but the the club has lunches for those youth who arrive empty handed and also provides all the children two snacks a day.

Boys & Girls Club youth work on activities at the Northampton Fire and Rescue Station in Nassawadox.

The program currently operates Mondays and Thursdays with students from elementary to middle schools attending. High school students are attending two-hour sessions at the YMCA two evenings a week.

Jaylyn, 6, said she misses the friends she has made at the fire station on the days when the program is not operating. “I like playing with everyone and learning,” she said.

Derrick Bell, 20, and one of the five staff members assisting 18 children on this day, said, “We missed the kids and are happy to see them again. Now we are teaching them about social distancing and the importance of wearing masks in addition to helping with classwork assignments and also just letting them have some fun together.”

In addition to Bell and Custis, Boys & Girls Club staffers Roneka Byrd, Desiree Kellam and Ivy Bundick share the various tasks involving educating and supervising the youth in a safe environment.

In addition to providing the two days of instruction and supervised activities at the station, the Boys & Girls Club delivers lunches to members in various neighborhoods two days a week. Broderick Custis prepares the lunches and loads a club bus with about 65 lunches on Tuesdays and Fridays and travels the Eastern Shore, handing out lunches and academic worksheets to members — and also non-members of the club — who are in need of nutritious meals. Staff members pick up the worksheets on the next trip, handling out more.

“We know about the effects of COVID-19 on adults, especially the elderly, but our children are also greatly affected because not all parents can work from home. What do they do when schools are closed?” asks Custis. “The Boys & Girls Club is a place where members can learn in a safe place. That’s what we are trying to provide here,” motioning to two large rooms where some youth were working one-on-one with staff members on academic subjects and others were playing a board game of Sorry or enjoying a video game together.

To donate to the Eastern Shore Boys and Club, send a check payable to BGCSEVA, P.O. Box 101, Melfa, Va. 23410.

All donations are tax deductible because BGCSEVA is a 501(c)(3) entity.

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