Monday was First Day of the After School at Boys and Girls Club of Alpena

The Boys and Girls Club of Alpena held the first day of their after school program in their new building. They officially started operations out of it in June.

There has been hard and rigorous work put in over the summer to prepare the staff and the students for this moment.

“Being the first day of school for us is extraordinarily exciting;” said executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Alpena, Bradley Somers. “It’s exciting for the staff, it’s exciting to see the kids again, because sometimes we’d see different kids during the summer than we do during the school year, and then we get to see those school kids again. We’re always thankful too for the partnership that we have with Alpena Public Schools being able to bus the kids here. When school’s out, the Club is in.”

The new building has nearly three times the space the old building had, and with 150 students, sometimes with an upward of 200, it allows them to operate much more efficiently.

“Being over in a space like this where we can effectively and more efficiently split up kids by their age groups and be able to do programming that’s set for first and second graders, or for first graders, or for fifth graders or junior high, it’s just more appropriate programming,” said Somers.

The Boys and Girls Club has several people to thank, including their own staff and the community that has supported them so strongly throughout this process.

“Kids don’t complain about things, but they deserve better, and for them to be able to walk into a building like this and be proud of it and see what we can do with the space is pretty amazing,” said Somers.

The Boys and Girls Club is looking forward to being able to do lots of fun things with the kids in their program throughout the school year.