Saturday, April 27, 2024

Boys & Girls Club Adapts to Changing Times, Kids’ Needs

photos by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS

A walk-through of the Boys & Girls Club of Shelby County - Shelbyville site makes it obvious: this is not the club of your - or your parents’ - childhood.

“The purpose of the Club has changed a lot through the years because the needs of the kids have changed,” Scott Spahr, Chief Executive Officer, said in an interview last week over the sounds of some 250 kids who visit the location daily. 

That number is augmented by 115 kids each day at the Morristown site and 60 in Waldron. Spahr, only the fourth executive leader in the club’s 70-year history, is now spearheading the charge to also open a location at Southwestern schools this fall, where he expects 50 students to participate.

The Shelbyville base is now much more than gym and game space. A Tween/Teen Center opened this month in 4,000 square feet of a previously little used gym extension. The Center saw increased use each day in its first week. An Exergame room allows children to play video games, but they have to pedal to keep them powered. A Just Dance pad is another popular option. And Shelbyville is the only Boys & Girls Club in the nation to still offer shooting sports.

“It’s all about physically and mentally getting the kids active,” Spahr said.

Staff are also on-site for arts and crafts, homework help and tutoring, in addition to the presence of mental health advocates, the result of a partnership with MHP. “They’re just here to talk to kids and give them resources on how to deal with the stress they are dealing with right now,” Spahr said. And all kids receive a meal. The Club’s Shelby County locations served 52,444 of them last year.

But funding such an operation, especially when it comes to the nuances of government rules, is a perpetual challenge. The school district a Club serves must have 50 percent of the student population receive free or reduced lunch in order for meals to be funded. While Shelbyville meets the criteria, county schools are just shy.

“If you just focus on the kids who come to the Club, we’re at 65 to 70 percent,” Spahr said. He’s traveled to Washington D.C. twice and continues to lobby the Indiana Department of Education to lower the threshold to 40 percent, the same as neighboring states, which would allow the satellite locations’ meals to be funded.

Until then, Spahr and the Club’s board of directors seek out donors so meals can continue countywide. While several corporations have stepped up, finding the approximately $60,000 annually to cover the nearly 200 meals needed daily in Morristown and Waldron is a continuous concern. And the amount needed will increase this fall when Southwestern opens.

“It’s sort of scary opening a site without full funding, but the needs are there. We have to take care of the kids,” Spahr said.

While Spahr sets a vision for the future, he’s cognizant of the Club’s rich history and has nominated those instrumental to the organization’s success to the Indiana Boys & Girls Club Hall of Fame. The committee last year inducted Phil Batton and this year accepted Spahr’s nomination of Jerry Lux, now in his 50th year on the local board of directors.

“And he’s still very active,” Spahr said.

Several of Lux’s family members flew in to surprise him with the recognition.

On the day-to-day-level, Spahr thinks big picture, recently planning an outside audit firm to conduct a thorough review of the organization’s $1.1 million budget. Despite the daily arrival of hundreds of children, he treats the business side of the house as just that: a business.

“I want to be so transparent, you can walk right through me,” he said.

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NOTEBOOK:

• NATIONAL NEWS: Earlier this week was the first round of the 2024 NFL draft. The draft historically involves prospects actually going to the event, which makes for great television not only when the prospect is picked and can accept team gear on stage, but also has the cynical but nevertheless telegenic moments of people frustrated when they are not picked. Well, that downside risk has spooked more and more prospects every year, and last night only 13 players went to Detroit, down from 17 players last year and 22 players two years ago. (AP/Numlock)

• The Addison Times publishes essential news and historical content to build our Shelby County community, and is free thanks to the generosity of supporters. Those who donate a minimum of $5 a month (or $60 one-time) receive an exclusive quarterly Addison Times magazine as an appreciation gift.

• Want the daily edition read to you? Struggling with your email provider filtering out your local news? The Addison Times Substack app will solve those challenges!

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This Day in Shelby County History

2014: J.D. Cox, Shelbyville High School student and baseball and tennis player, was accepted into the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

2004: Former Shelby County resident Rick Taylor performed at Fat Daddy’s. Taylor, a former Fountaintown Elementary and Morristown High School student, had played for three seasons on the set of “Hee Haw” and on stage at Market Square Arena.

The Shelbyville Plan Commission approved annexing 186 acres of the new city-county park off Old Rushville Road, which still did not have an official name, into the city. Local officials planned to extend Rushville Road to Lee Boulevard and use funding from the Wal-Mart TIF district to construct streets. The land was being used as soccer fields, tillable acreage and pasture.

1994: A fire caused by severe weather led to major damage to the Azalia Elevator in Waldron. High winds led to numerous property damage issues in the area. The Waldron High School roof was also peeled back.

1984: A proposed large sewage rate hike for Shelbyville was unpopular, but necessary, city officials said. In the previous 26 years, the city’s minimum residential monthly rate had increased only 28 cents, and with the city facing an outdated sewer plant that was falling apart but not paid for, an increase was imminent. The city still had 14 years before the plant was paid off. Commercial rates had also only increased slightly, from $35 a month in 1948 for a four-inch sewage meter to $45 in 1984.

1974: Members of Morristown High School’s prom court were Rick Ritter, Teresa Stout, Greg Willard, Debbie Terrell, David Blackford, Rita Crim, Patti Melser, Andy Evans, Jon Bridges and Vickie Phares.

A consecration service was held at New Life United Methodist Church, located on CR 400 W just north of 600 N. The new church house, under construction since 1973, would house a congregation of people who had come together from three former United Methodist Churches: London, Brandywine and Sugar Creek.

1964: Many local churchgoers were asked at worship services not to support segregationist Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama in the Democratic presidential primary. Messages read by pastors to their congregations or printed in church bulletins referred to Wallace as “a champion of state’s wrongs rather than of state’s rights.” The messages were in some cases the individual appeal of ministers, in others the result of denominational appeals on a state level. “Wallace’s attack on civil rights is a moral issue, not a political issue,” Dr. Grover Hartman, executive secretary of the Indiana Council of Churches, said.

1954: Snoda Westerman, Hendricks Township, caught two 19-pound snapping turtles bareheaded in Blue River. She had been fishing from a boat when she saw the two turtles on a drift. Grasping each by the tail, she hauled them into the boat. “The turtles were not pleased by being captured and their disposition has not improved since,” The Shelbyville News said. “They probably will end up as turtle soup.”

“There is a sad but wiser motorist today, who learned ‘the hard way,’ last night that he shouldn’t take instructions too literally,” The Shelbyville News reported. An Anderson man had been driving around the east end of Shelbyville looking for Taylor’s Roller Rink in Kennedy Park. Unable to find it, he asked a small boy for directions. The kid told him to turn east on E. Franklin St., and “follow the blue lights” (blue neon lights surrounding the roller rink building). The driver turned onto Franklin, drove a short distance and saw the lights, which were on the other side of Little Blue River. He turned left to cross the ford and when he got in the middle of the ford he saw the lights just off to his right, at the top of the stream bank. Remembering his directions to follow the lights, the driver again turned right - and attempted to drive up the river. It didn’t work. Firemen from Station No. 2 answered an alarm reporting a car in the river, and found the man unhurt but wet, muttering about a small boy who had neglected to tell him about the river. The car was hauled out of the water by a wrecker. The driver told firemen he never saw the water until his car, a 1948 Buick, sank.

1944: Local women were asked to make more surgical dressings for service men. Workers were desperately needed, Mrs. B.G. Keeney, chairman of the dressing unit, said. The dressings were made at the local Inlow Clinic work room and sent overseas.

1934: Regulations for an upcoming “skatethon,” to be held at the armory, were announced by manager Harold Keetle. No rest periods would be allowed for the skaters, and any skater who left the floor for any cause at all, such as a broken skate, personal hygiene, etc. automatically would be eliminated from the contest. The winner of the contest would win a percentage of the receipts and a trophy. Spectators could compete in a guessing contest as to how long the Skatethon would last.

1924: Chapters of several Colored Knights of Pythias groups from nearby counties gathered at the Shelbyville lodge.

Conrey-Davis Mfg. announced plans to hire 75 men.

1914: First Christian Church set a record with 725 at Sunday school. The attendance push was part of a contest against the Christian Church in Greensburg. The Shelbyville church had well over 100 more in attendance than Greensburg. The Men’s Bible class, taught by Rev. W.G. Eldred, pastor, was a large factor, with the men working hard to recruit friends to service.

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OBITUARIES

None today