Boys and Girls Club makes plans to reopen

ALPENA, Mich.—Families have had to cope with a number of changes since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, including child education and care. The Boys and Girls Club, which simultaneously offers child education services, is finally reopening its doors.

Now that Michigan’s stay home order has been lifted, members will be allowed in the building at a limited capacity.

Executive Director of Alpena’s Boys and Girls club, Brad Somers, says staff has been preparing for this since the beginning of the shutdown.

“Everything that we do is all about the safety of our members and our staff members. The staff has been really busy with making sure that our building is clean, our building is sanitized, we’ve been painting, making sure to take out any non–wipe–able surfaces.”

Things will look a look a lot different for the kids when they return. Face-masks, social distancing, and reduced numbers will be the new normal until the state deems otherwise.

Somers says right now, programming will start off slow, and the club will increase its capacity to accommodate more members throughout the summer.

“We’re only going to be offering programs starting out three days a a week, and it’s going to be from 11:30 to 4 o’clock on those three days. And we’re also going to be having the Youth Volunteer Corps Program, which is a Boys and Girls Club hosted program. That’s for 11 to 18 year olds, and that’ll be taking place on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

Somers says he expects no more than 40 kids to occupy the club until further notice. Members will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.

For more info, visit www.bgcalpena.org, or call (989) 356–0214 .