There’s no doubt the challenges faced by the Sweet Home branch of the Boys & Girls Club of the Greater Santiam are significant.
In several stories published over the past month, including page 1 of today’s newspaper, we’ve reported that the organization has revealed how, to put it bluntly, the Sweet Home community is not contributing its share of the club’s financial needs.
While some may question the accuracy of the figures presented by the club in making that case, and which club officials themselves have said were essentially a professional accountant’s effort to categorize where categories really haven’t existed, the fact remains: Our Boys & Girls Club is in trouble.
And, though we might also question, as some in the community justly have, why the organization let this go so long without bringing it up, we think it’s time to move past that and figure this out.
We’re convinced that the Boys & Girls Club is moving in a good direction, program-wise. Instead of the semi-controlled chaos we used to witness when we visited the club in years past to do stories or take photos, more recently we’ve noticed a distinct change. Yes, kids are still rambunctious, but there’s an air of purpose that didn’t seem to be there before. And that’s intended, club officials have told us. The program is focused on proactive learning and behavior programs, not after-the-fact reaction when some kid goes haywire.
Things seem to be going well, content-wise. Now we have to figure out how to pay for it.
The Boys & Girls Club is one of those entities that we tend to take for granted. We show up once a year at the auction, bid on a few things, and figure we’ve done our duty. Apparently, we’ve been wrong – to the tune of about six figures.
There are significant challenges here.
For the Boys & Girls Club, the challenges are to make its case to the community.
The club needs to figure out ways to get people inside where they can see what’s going on. Seeing is believing. That will help develop the trust that the club needs to build with the Sweet Home community.
The fact that the Board of Directors is dominated by Lebanon folks, who apparently have provided the lion’s share of the funding for the club, the fact that the club was slow to be transparent about its financial issues, the fact that it has failed to build bridges with Sweet Home residents who might be able to solve some of those problems – these are significant challenges, but they are being addressed and should continue to be.
For Sweet Home residents, we need to ask ourselves how committed we are to developing the next generation. The Boys & Girls Club could just be a babysitting service, but it’s not just that. It’s a safe place for youngster, who otherwise might be latchkey kids, to go and, as we noted previously, develop life and social skills through the club’s programs, get their homework done, get exercise and otherwise get assistance into developing responsibility and productivity – exactly what we want from our next generation.
It’s pretty clear that what we’re describing here will have payoffs down the road. Not only do working dads and moms not have to worry about what their kids are up to now, but if these kids learn skills and motivation that will help them become productive citizens, every dollar invested now will come back to Sweet Home in some form or fashion, hopefully in spades.
That’s why Sweet Home residents need to think seriously about the role the Boys & Girls Club plays, or should play, in our community. That’s why, if they’re not convinced, they need to visit the club.
All it takes is a phone call and a visit some afternoon to see the operation in full swing. Then we need to contribute accordingly.
Questions? Call Sweet Home Director Dave Bauer at (541) 367- 6421.