Et cetera : NCCC Cedar 3 gears up to revitalize Boys and Girls Club in Stevens Point, Wis.

Members assist with baseball game, science projects and repainting a children’s museum.

By: Phillip Keen

AmeriCorps NCCC Team Cedar 3 is serving with The Boys and Girls Club of Portage County in Stevens Point, Wisconsin until August 21. The team has been supporting staff with youth summer activities, organizing programs, and meal preparations.

As part of the staff crew, members have gained insight to leadership skills, conflict resolution between youth, and facilitated education programs. In addition, the team has taught programs about healthy habits and the importance of eating nutritious food. During arts and crafts members assisted youth to make creations like papier-mâché, colored snowflakes, outside chalk paintings. The team has also supervised sports and recreation activities such as kickball, tennis, “knock out” basketball game. During their time, the team has acted as positive role models for the youth and given much needed support to staff.

The team also assisted the Boys and Girls club with the "Celebrate Plover” event in which members helped at the kids’ activity booth. The next day the team helped clean up the park by picking up trash in addition to taking down and cleaning tables, chairs, stages, and decorations.

“The NCCC team has been extremely helpful to The Boys and Girls club. They create a new, fun, and exciting atmosphere for the kids that we serve. New personalities are always a bonus as well as having the extra hands to help out staff members run their programming,” says Plover Unit Director, Rachel Schreoder.

The Boys and Girls Club provides a space and atmosphere for youth to have fun and most importantly grow into loving, and caring people to help change the community and soon the world. Their mission is to inspire and enable all youth especially those that need us most, to realize their full potentials as productive, responsible, and caring community members.