March 11, 2024
What is the best part of The Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club? 
Field trips, the gym, summer camp, seeing friends.
How would life be different without the Boys and Girls Club?
Not seeing the outside world as much.
Not as much help with homework.
No friends.
Every year, the Catawba County United Way (CCUW) partners with local non-profits who are champions of improving the lives of youth and teens.
In a new weekly series, the CCUW will introduce the 2024 funded programs working in this impact area, highlighting how education is more than just grades and attendance.
This week – The Salvation Army of Greater Hickory Boys and Girls Club.
BY SAMANTHA GAMBILL
Catawba County United Way
Imagine you are a young child who has just gotten on the bus at the end of the school day.
Once you arrive at your afterschool program, you get started on your homework. When you’re finished, you talk with your friends until its snack time and then you head outside or to the gym to play. Before you know it, hours have passed, and your parents are there to pick you up and take you home.
This is a typical afternoon at the Hickory Boys and Girls Club for Ka’mara Shuford.
“It wouldn’t be as much fun in life without the Boys and Girls Club,” Ka’mara said, and as far as her mentors there go. “They’re the greatest thing to happen to me.”
The Salvation Army’s Boys and Girls Club is a nonprofit organization that provides all children, regardless of their background, a place to go after school.
“I think the biggest vision we have is just to get them to see their worth,” the director of the Boys and Girls Club Clifton Bennett said.
The Boys and Girls Club gives children the opportunity to do things they’ve never been able to do before. They offer everything from ballet lessons to music lessons, to field trips, to organized sports.
Bennett believes the most beneficial aspect of children participating in organized sports is the increase in the confidence levels among those who participate in the program.
“They have a lot of challenges and social barriers that they’re working with, and I think the more they get in here, the more they interact, the more that they are shown some attention and worth, they begin to see that in themselves, and it begins to naturally cultivate from there,” Bennett said.
Being able to participate in organized sports teaches these children numerous things they would not otherwise learn, according to the director. They learn how to work with a team, how to set goals for themselves, how to achieve those goals, how to communicate with others, and how to win and lose with grace. These are lessons that they will be able to carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Along with the life lessons they learn while participating in organized sports, they also learn about the Christian faith.
“The Salvation Army is a Christian organization.” Bennett said, “We don’t shove it on anyone, but at the same time it gives us the opportunity for it to be a ministry, and the definition of ministry is a help.”
In 2023, the Boys and Girls Club was able to help 132 children from all different races and backgrounds.
|
African American |
Asian/Hmong |
Caucasian |
Latino/Hispanic |
Multi-Racial |
Native American |
Other Race |
Total |
|
46 |
0 |
38 |
27 |
27 |
0 |
0 |
132 |
Bennett hopes to continue expanding the Boys and Girls Club. He is working to give children more opportunities by adding everything from STEM programs to E-Sports.
“We want to make sure that we keep them engaged,” he said.
All the opportunities the Boys and Girls Club currently have, and all the opportunities they are hoping to add in the future, will provide them with the opportunity to teach children. They will be able to teach them life lessons that will extend beyond the classroom and they can carry with them long past their involvement in this program.
Learn more about other CCUW funded partners in the Education impact area at - THIS LINK.
Next Monday – Catawba County Partnership for Children’s Parents as Teachers program.
