Winter Wonderland Fun at the Club

Although we have only been together four days over the Holiday Break, we have been very busy here at the Al Lenzmeier West Side Boys and Girls Club.

Last week, members had the opportunity to participate in our Knee Hockey Tournament created by our Social Recreation Director, Matt Harrity.   In the gym, members played flag football, big base, and even had the chance to do some rollerblading in the gym with our Physical Education Director, Rudy Lugo. Members also had the opportunity to participate in writing their letters to Santa as well as compete in coloring contests with our STARS Coordinator, Teria Masterjohn.

We also had brunch with Santa and all of our members had the chance to sit on Santa's lap and have their picture taken.  We were able to print these out and give these to our members' families at pick up.

We also had our weekly visit from the members of Augustana Lutheran Church, where they fed us a wonderful dinner and also frosted Christmas cookies with our members.  We are so very fortunate to have them come and prepare a weekly meal and spend time with our members.  We are lucky to have them a part of our West Side family.

This week, members have been busy working on STEM based projects as well as writing their own New Year's Resolutions and Goals for 2015.  It has been wonderful to see what these members feel are important when creating their goals.

Overall, it has been an eventful few days!  Below is two movies I have created with the past two weeks of fun here at the club!  See you all on Monday.

Holiday Schedule of Activities at the Club!

As we move into the next couple of weeks, we would like you all to know the activities we have planned.  On December 22nd, we are open from 9am-5:30 pm and have several activities planned for the day.  Members will be writing letters to Santa in the STARS and Education rooms.  We will then be following this up with a Knee Hockey Tournament in the Games Room with the Social Recreation Director, Matt Harrity.  Members will then have the chance to stretch their minds in both engineering and math creating and racing their own sleighs with our Education Director, Samantha Hausker. Members will also have the opportunity to do some rollerblading in the gym.  We will end the days festivities with a marshmallow roast to those lucky members that receive the golden tickets.

On December 23rd, members will have the opportunity to have brunch with Santa.  Our Camp CAMERA graduates will be taking professional photos for members with Santa that we will be able to give to them.  In the Games Room, we will continue our Knee Hockey Tournaments and members will also have the chance to watch a Christmas movie in our Cinema Room with Hot Cocoa.

We will be closed on December 24th, 25th, and 26th for Christmas.

We will open on December 29th from 9 am-5:30 pm with several special events planned. Members aged 10-17 will have the chance to go to our Voyageur Camp for an overnight filled with fun.  Those who do not go camping, will be able to participate in our Athletic Director, Rudy Lugo's Snow Bowl Football Tournament and Sledding that will take place outside.  In the Games Room, the Social Recreation Director, Matt Harrity will be running Bean Bag Toss Tournaments and members will have the chance to write their New Year's Resolutions in the Education Room.

On December 30th, we will be open from 9am-5:30 pm.  Those who had the opportunity to go to camp will return.  We will present the Snow Bowl Awards from the tournament the day before, and members will have the opportunity to be part of the Flapjack Express with our STARS Coordinator, Teria Masterjohn.

We will be closed on December 31st and January 1st, but look forward to seeing you all again that following Monday!

Creating Holiday Stockings

As part of the Holiday season, one of our volunteers from Saint Paul College, Mena Xiong, has brought in the materials needed to have members create holiday stockings.  Members had the chance to choose what materials they wanted to create their very own stockings.  Members could choose from glitter glue, snowflakes, bells and garland to decorate their stockings.

Members also had the chance to create Christmas ornaments, sweaters, and cards throughout the week.

Thank you, Mena for making the holidays special for our members.  They truly enjoyed these arts and crafts and were excited to bring their creations home.

Members at the Vikings Game

On December 7th, members of the West Side Boys and Girls Club had the opportunity to brave the cold and see the MN Vikings play the New York Jets at the TCF Stadium.  Thank you to the wonderful donor that donated 20 tickets so that our members and their families could see this game. Your donation was greatly appreciated by our members and their families!

Creating Word Clouds in the Education Center

As part of our Netsmartz class in the Education Center, Samantha Hausker, our Education Director had members create Word Clouds on the computer.  Members were asked to choose twenty words that decribe how they promote leadership skills in their lives and strive to be role models here at our club.  Above is a collage of the word clouds that they created.  Great job members!

Coca-Cola Visits the Club for the Holidays

Yesterday we had he privilege of having Coca-Cola come to our club for our Annual Hanging of the Green.  For the past six years, Coca-Cola has donated their time and money to decorate our club for Christmas.  Not only did they decorate our club by hanging the garland, but they were able to donate a real tree from Home Depot that they also decorated for us.

Once the decorations were up, the members started coming in and were so excited to see how nice our club looked for the Holiday season.  Coca-Cola volunteers spent time in our program areas playing pool, basketball and dodgeball with our members and even brought the supplies necessary to have members create and decorate ornaments that they could take home with them.

Coca-Cola then took their generosity a step further and presented our club with a check for $2,000.00 which will be used to offer self defense courses for our female members, STEM materials for our Education Room, as well as giving us the ability to take our members roller skating, sledding and ice skating as academic incentives throughout the year.

Around dinner time, members also had the chance to decorate and eat Christmas cookies which was then followed by feeding all of our members a very nice Holiday meal with homemade lasagna, vegetables, bread and fruit.

Below is a movie I created highlighting the day's celebration.  Thank you, Coca-Cola for all that you do for us throughout the year.  Our staff and members greatly appreciate it!

Thanksgiving and Awards Dinner

On Tuesday, November 25th, we celebrated our annual Thanksgiving and Awards Dinner at the Al Lenzmeier West Side Boys & Girls Club.  We were pleased to have 230 people in attendance to celebrate with us.  Social hour and turkey bingo began at 5:00 pm where all adults had a chance to win a turkey that they could take home with them.

At 5:30 pm, one of our members, Jennifer Argenal, introduced our keynote speaker Enrique (Cha-Cho) Estrada.  Mr. Estrada was a club kid himself, worked for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities and currently continues his youth development on the West Side at Neighborhood House.

 Once he spoke, we had our STARS Coordinator, Teria Masterjohn and our Education Director, Samantha Hausker present our Thanksgiving Play that was performed by eighteen of our members.

Once they finished their play, we had the invocation presented by Pastor Aune, from Augustana Church.  The Thanksgiving meal and all of the fixings was generously donated by the members of the Augustana Lutheran Church who have been an integral part of our success each year.  They were presented with our Good Neighbor Award for their constant nourishment, love and support to our members.

Once the meal was finished, we had our members that are part of the bell choir, under the guidance and supervision of Janet and JoAnn, volunteers from Augustana Church perform two songs.

Next was the awards ceremony where we were pleased to give out recognition and awards to our members who participated in soccer, Goals for Graduation, our STARS reading program, Torch Club, Keystone, and Camp CAMERA.

We then had the opportunity to thank all of the dedicated volunteers that help support us every day. We thanked our volunteers from Macalester College, Saint Thomas University, Century College as well as individuals such as Brad Goff, Peter Rhodes, and Barry Bloomgren for their service to the club.

A special thank you to our staff and everyone who came out to celebrate with us and recognize our outstanding members.