New South Elgin clubhouse for Boys & Girls Club nears completion
The new South Elgin clubhouse for the Boys & Girls Club of Elgin is starting to look a lot more like welcoming place for kids and a lot less like a dingy former public works building.
Gone are the bare cinder-block walls, oil-stained concrete floors, dim fluorescent lighting and faint smell of truck exhaust. In are bright new rooms with colorful furniture, a gym without its first sneaker scuff, and a new director waiting to welcome kids early next year.
"I love that we're starting with a blank slate and we have the opportunity to reach out to so many kids and families in this area," said Casey Puehler, the new South Elgin-area director.
The roughly 20,000-square-foot facility at 735 Martin Drive will provide daily education, meals and activities for about 250 children from kindergarten through eighth grade.
While the occupancy day is "kind of in flux right now," Puehler said, the group hopes to begin programming in January. Early enrollment begins Friday.
Those programs are based on the Boys & Girls Club pillars of social-emotional learning, education, social justice and leadership, workforce development and arts.
From 2 to 7 p.m. each day, kids from the four South Elgin elementary schools and Kenyon Woods Middle School will be able to take advantage of the new facility. The building has a STEM lab, an art room, a sensory room, study spaces for homework and a separate social and study area for teens.
"The goal is that kids get a diverse experience," Puehler said. "They get a little bit of everything, and there's some structure to it."
And knowing that kids will be kids and will want to play video games, those are available as well. But kids will have to work for it using "exerbikes," which make them pedal a stationary bike to play the game.
"They're going to play video games regardless, so this way, you keep them active while doing it," Puehler said.
Until they're ready to open, Puehler, whose background includes stints with Big Brothers Big Sisters and AmeriCorps, is getting to know the principals at area schools and giving tours of the new facility.
"We're just trying to get people in the door and get them excited about what we're working on," Puehler said.
They're also still trying to fill the building with the needed supplies for all that programming. They're working with businesses, churches and local groups to collect donations and have created an Amazon wish list with requests ranging from Play-Doh and Post-its to board games to basketballs.
A November grand opening is planned for the project that has been several years in the making.
Puehler said she's glad to be a part of it.
"I just really appreciate the mission of creating a safe environment for kids where they can have fun while being able to develop relationships with peers."