December 18, 2017
Dear Muncie,
With the Christmas Season upcoming, and the New Year just around the corner, I often find myself reflecting on the past year. It has been an amazing year of change, and growth at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Muncie (that right there is a change in the coming, going from Club to Clubs). Starting with an historic agreement with the Muncie Community School District and opening two in School Afterschool Sites, and culminating with the merger between the Boys & Girls Clubs of Muncie and the Roy G. Buley Center, we’ve grown our family from one house, to four.
At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Muncie, this is the time of year when, like Santa, we make a list and check it twice, now is when we choose our Club Kids and Youth of the Year. Each Club (Buley, East Washington Academy, Madison Street, and Southside) will choose one boy, and one girl, who best represents the Boys & Girls Code. The Youth of the Year is a Boys & Girls Clubs of America Program which sets out to honor one young person, one Club member, who exemplifies what being a part of the Boys & Girls Club is all about. I’ve gotten the chance to meet our recipient Kamrein J, and I am not looking forward to having to choose from some of the great young men and women who regularly attend our Club. Please save the date for our Great Futures Luncheon to hear from our Club Kids and Youth of the Year.
It has been a little over two months since I’ve started at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Muncie, and on that first week, we were averaging 191 Club kids every day. As I write this, we are just coming off a day where we had 262 members in our buildings. That is a testament to you, our partners, families, and champions in the community. With your help, our average daily attendance for this week was 230 members per day. But, as much as I like to reminisce about what we’ve done, what I find truly exciting about this time of year is looking at where we are going. We’ve increased our daily attendance by 20%, with our growing partnerships we hope to increase that number by another 20%. We look forward to creating our Weight Room and Cardio Room, a Performing Arts Space, as well as expanding the hours of Operation at the Roy G. Buley Boys & Girls Club so we can provide a true Club experience for our elementary and Middle School Club members. We will be hosting grade specific Club Friday Nights at our Madison Street Clubhouse, so that everyone can experience that traditional Boys & Girls Club experience. Our goal is to serve more children, for more hours, every day, to enable them to grow to their full potential, and way beyond what they thought possible.
I’m excited to see where our Boys & Girls Clubs are going in the next 12 months. Will you join us on this journey?
Sincerely,
Jason Newman