Club 52

We recently recognized our 52 Club members by having their names displayed on the wall.  This is a great honor because these members have come 52 or more times to club.   The more members come to club on a consistent basis, the more they will succeed at school and life.  Congratulations to our Club 52!  We appreciate your attendance!

Gingerbread House Making

Over the holidays we spent time making gingerbread houses that were donated by Trader Joes. Members were called up by fives and they had to use their teamwork skills  to figure out how to put the gingerbread house together.  They then took turns designing them.  Members had a great time.

Since we had several left over, we raffled them off for members to take these home and complete them with their families. Thanks to Beck Rea, our Kids Feeding Kids Manager for getting the donation.

Coca Cola and the Hanging of the Green

Every year we are fortunate to have Coca-Cola come to our club and decorate it for the holidays. The building looked absolutely beautiful.  Once they decorated the club, they frosted cookies with our members.  They provided a great Holiday dinner that consisted of pasta, bread and salad and helped clean the kitchen.

We were honored to be given a check for $1787.00 from Coca-Cola which we spent on floor hockey jerseys, floor hockey sticks and pucks, gymnastic mats, boxed hockey game and a Wii.  Members were then able to play with these items while Coca-Cola was here.

Thank you to Coca-Cola for your consistent support of our club!  We appreciate it so very much! Click on the link to see the movie I created:  Coca-Cola Hanging of the Green Event

Volunteer Organization Hands Joining Hands

A heartfelt thank you to Janet Gunderson and her volunteer organization from the Children's Hospital called Hands Joining Hands for raising $1041.00 for our members by selling cupcakes.  This money will be used to continually stock our display case with meaningful incentives and allow our members to go on field trips throughout the year.  Your support is greatly appreciated by our staff and our members!

Our 2015-2016 Youth of the Year

The Al Lenzmeier West Side Boys and Girls Club would like to take the time to congratulate Xavier Walden as our 2015-2016 Youth of the Year.  Xavier is a senior at Washington Technology Magnet School.  He currently has a 3.4 cumulative grade point average and a weighted cumulative grade point of 3.7.  

He is very involved in activities both inside and outside of school.  He is currently the captain of his basketball team and is involved in Genius Squad, Black Avid, and the West Side Teen Advisory Council.  He has been a Junior Staff for two years here at the Al Lenzmeier West Side Boys and Girls Club and has participated in Career Launch, Money Matters, Keystone, Passport to Manhood and Triple Play activities.

We are very proud of your accomplishments and wish you the best in next month's competition!

The Kids Can Give Sale

This year our Kids Can Give Sale was a great success.  Members who came to the club had the opportunity to shop for presents for two family members.  We were able to serve 168 members and give out 366 gifts this season.

In addition, three Old Navy stores adopted three of our families to make sure that their Christmas was extra special.  Each family member received things that were on their wish list and were able to pick up these gifts on Monday December 21st all wrapped and ready to be placed under the tree.

Augustana Lutheran Church also came and served our members a Holiday Dinner and their volunteers also helped members wrap their presents that they chose for their family members.  After dinner, the volunteers served members hot cocoa and cookies.

Santa also made a visit and all members interested had the chance to sit on his lap and get their picture taken. Members will receive this photograph as a keepsake from the day.

Thank you to all the staff and volunteers that make this event so magical and special.  Click on the link to watch the movie I created:  Kids Can Give Sale  We appreciate your volunteerism very much!

Self Esteem Dove Event

Recently we closed down the club to host the Girls Dove Self Esteem Project at our location.  All clubs of the Twin Cities brought girls aged 9-17 years old to our site for an evening of fun.  Once the girls arrived, they were given a goodie bag that had a Dove journal inside as well as a beautiful scarf with the Boys and Girls Club logo on it.

Next, they made their way into the cafeteria where the girls were split into groups of 25 to go through the Dove Curriculum.  In these sessions, girls learned about the importance of self esteem and body image and also looked at ways the media influences how we feel about ourselves.  After an hour facilitation, girls had dinner that was catered by a Chinese food company.  While they ate, the girls listened to our guest speaker discuss the endless opportunities that are available to girls highlighting several young entrepreneurs.

After dinner, the girls could participate in two of the break out sessions that they previously had chosen.  These break out sessions consisted of hip hop dance, work out session, nutritional cooking, self portrait art, praise poems, and STEM.

Overall, the girls had a fabulous evening and I am still asked regularly about when we will have the next All Girl Event.  Below is a link to the movie I created:  Self Esteem Dove Event.

Our Annual Member Recognition and Thanksgiving Dinner Celebration

Our Annual Member Recognition and Thanksgiving Dinner Celebration was another great success this year.  I would like to take the time to thank the 50 Augustana Lutheran Church volunteers for their donation of their time in preparation for this event as well as donating the abundant meal that fed 200 members and families that came to celebrate with us this evening.  Without their passion and dedication to our club, we would not be able to have this kind of impact on our community and those we serve on a daily basis.

I would like to also thank the Police Chief Tom Smith and his wife Cathy Smith for being our guest speakers for the evening.  Although the Police Chief was unable to make it, he wrote a speech and had his wife present it.   Cathy Smith has had a great impact on our West Side Community with her contribution to women's athletics.  Thank you for donating your time to make sure that our young female athletes find success in both softball and volleyball every season.  You are a great role model for them to aspire to.

We are pleased to announce that we served approximately 200 people at our event again this year. Further, our members were able to be recognized for their club accomplishments in the areas of athletics, leadership, citizenship and academics.

We had special performances by our bell choir as well as introduction and recognition for our STARS Reading Program.  We are pleased to report that in quarter one of the 35 STARS assessed they have increased their sight words by 30 percent.  A special thanks to Geno, Shadae, Che'la, Daniel, Aiden and Adrian who read two Thanksgiving poems that showcased their reading abilities.

We ended the evening by raffling off some of our Al Lenzmeier West Side Boys & Girls Club Parent Sweatshirts and played turkey bingo for a chance to win a turkey for our families.

Thanks to all the staff for their hard work and dedication and to our families for allowing us the privilege to educate and shape each and every one of hem into productive, responsible citizens!

Please click on the following link to watch our Thanksgiving video: Thanksgiving Video

Academic Incentive Program

The STARS collected $573.50 Club Cash for the month of October and had 83 members participating.  The Education Room collected $488 and had 77 members participating. 

This means that the STARS have completed 1146 activities and the Education Room has completed 976 activities, for a total of 2122 activities, homework assignments, and volunteer hours.  Keep up the great work members and staff!

Save the Date!

Please save the date for the Annual Thanksgiving Dinner and Member Recognition Evening.  We look forward to see  you all at our location for food, member recognition and Thanksgiving Poems read by our STARS reading group.

Halloween STEM Project

Since the day we were celebrating Halloween at the club this year fell on a school release day, we had several fun Halloween themed activities that members could participate in. In the STARS Room, members could create the Day of the Dead masks and watch Goosebumps. In the Education Room, members had the chance to play Halloween Bingo for prizes and followed that up with a Halloween Candy STEM Project. For the Halloween Candy STEM Project, members had to learn what the word acidity meant and then apply that knowledge to making predictions about which Halloween Candy had the most acidity. Members chose from Lemon Heads, Nerds, Sour Patch Kids, Gummy Bears, and Sour Watermelon Candy. They first needed to soak the candy in plain water for a bit to take of the first layer of candy coating. They then proceeded to put baking soda in the water and watched to see the reaction. The more bubbles rising to the surface meant that the candy was more acidic than the others. The winners were the lemon heads and the Nerds.

Our Annual Halloween Party

 Our Annual Halloween Party was a success again this year, serving 200 members, families and guests within the community. Our guests had the chance to play several games that were set up in the gym and receive candy. Some of those games included a basketball shoot out, the witch hat toss, a duck pond, the clown bean bag toss and much, much more.

 Within the gym, our guests could also enjoy dinner, popcorn and conversation with one another. The highlight of the evening was definitely our Haunted House. The Haunted House took several days to complete and I would like to give a special thanks to our Event Coordinator, Laura Reyes, and her family who spent days creating this special attraction from start to finish. When you first walked through our Haunted Maze, you were greeted by a masked gentleman who would be your guide. He brought members through the haunted graveyard, then through the walking dead zombie sight to the scary clown exhibit. Thanks to all of the people who came out to celebrate with us this year and we hope to see you next year!

Please feel free to watch our Halloween Video here: Halloween Video

The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities Gala Event

October 17th was our annual Gala for the Kids Event.  Staff had a great time presenting all of the items for the silent auction.  Stay tuned for details on how much was raised.

Fall Flag Football League

This fall, we had a very successful flag football league with all of the Saint Paul Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities.  Members had the chance to compete and the opportunity to travel to other sites. We ended the season at the West Side Boys & Girls Club for a dinner, awards and trophy presentation.  Great fun had by all that participated!

Cadet Soccer Leagues

Members of the Cadet Soccer League are off to a great start.   Members meet twice a week to practice skill development and compete in our in-house soccer league.

Teen Members of the Week and Month!

Our September Teens of the Week and Month are Uriel Reyes and Darian Gordon.

Uriel has been a member of the club for many years, but as he is know 13 years old, he has become more active in participating in programs at our club.  He always comes into club and makes sure he is getting his homework done and is willing to help in any way we may need him to at club.

Darian Gordon has been chosen as our Teen Member of the Month.  Darian has been coming to the club for the past three years and has shown tremendous growth in his participation in programs like Career Launch, keystone, Career Exploration and volunteerism in the club.

Keep up the outstanding work and showing great leadership!

Our Flag Football League

Under the direct supervision of Rudy Lugo, our Athletic Director and our volunteer coaches our Boys and Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities Saint Paul Branches are having a great time competing against one another in our Flag Football League sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings!  Keep up the great work!

Our West Side Homework and Literacy Incentive Plan

In our staff meetings, we as a team here at the West Side Boys and Girls Club have decided to try a new model for the school year.  We began this in the summer and streamlined this to fit into our school year curriculum.

All members will travel through the club in age appropriate groups.  All members will have time in the games room and the gym after they have reported to the STARS Room or Education Center to complete their homework and or a literacy station in their program areas.  We are trying to help support our families and community schools by making sure our members not just complete homework, but practice vital academic skills.  We have worked hard to make sure that are literacy stations are not made up of worksheets, but engaging hands-on activities that are fun for our members.

Once members have completed their homework and/or a literacy station, they can earn a sticker that then will be turned into club bucks.  Members are able to put their sticker up on the board next to their name which helps us build the sense of belonging and community in our program areas.  Once a month, members can purchase prizes that are showcased in our display case as a reward for working hard.

In the month of September, we have had 151 members enrolled in this program!

STARS 64 members Total Earned in September: $378

Education Room 61 members Total Earned in September: $249

Teen Center 26 members Total Earned in September: $84

Together as a club, we have earned $711 in one month by completing homework, volunteering and literacy stations.

We are pleased to report that members are really enjoying this new recognition system!  Below is a photo of our club cash rewards display case!

STARS Reading Program

Our STARS members have been very busy in the STARS Room working on the curriculum created for our new West Side Boys & Girls Club Reading Program.  One of the major building blocks of future success starts with the ability to read.  This is why we have made it our mission to make sure that all members can read by the third grade. 

 Our new reading program has been broken down in to four categories for each quarter and focuses solely on preparing members to be emergent readers. Quarter One we will focus primarily on alphabet recognition (both lowercase and uppercase) for our kindergartner's.  For 1st through 3rd grade our focus will be sight word recognition.  We have differentiated these for each grade level.  It has been proven that these are 220 sight words that are used in everything we read.  In knowing this, we believe that this is important for all emerging readers to not be able to sound these out, but know them from sight.  After members have had literacy station practice in sight word recognition they will be assessed on their progress twice a quarter.

In Quarter Two, our focus then turns to phonics.  Teaching members how to sound out the words and work on the sounds each letters make is another big milestone on the road to reading.  Members will practice reading sentences that include new words as well as the sight words they have learned last quarter.  Their abilities will be assessed at the beginning of the quarter and then at the end of the quarter to see how members improve. 

When we begin Quarter Three, our focus will then focus on Reading and Reading Comprehension.  Member will practice reading by using the building blocks we learned in our past quarter on phonics and then slowly moving into differentiated reading curriculum appropriate for each grade level.  Members will then be assessed at the beginning and the end of the quarter to measure their success.

By Quarter Four, our focus will be on comprehension and then switch into reading fluency. Members will be assessed at the beginning and at the end of the quarter to measure their success.

Our hope is to assess all member, but will begin with 25 selected members.  Through this process we should be able to identify our non-readers, emergent readers, and beginning/intermediate readers and have data to support what is working and what might need more practice.

We plan to have parent nights to share these findings with our parents as well as highlight and recognize their achievements throughout the year.

Programs for 7th – 12th Grade at the West Side Boys and Girls Club

College Prep &

Goals for Graduation

As early as ninth grade, kids learn how important grades are for getting into college.  They set goals for the school year and throughout high school.  College tours, guest speakers and access to various scholarships are part of this program.

Physical Fitness

Teens have the opportunity to participate in sports leagues including basketball, volleyball, softball and baseball as well as open gym where they can play other organized team sports.

Academic Enrichment

Monday-Friday 4:30-5:00 and as needed

Teens have tutors available to them to help them with their homework and make sure that they are on track to graduate High School.

Teen Merging Minds

Tuesday and Wednesday 7:30-8:30

This is a teen based program for members aged 13-18 that takes a team approach to helping teens make healthy lifestyle decisions and how to handle peer pressure.   This program will explore sexual health, healthy relationships and relevant teen issues. 

Career Launch

Meets: Tuesday and Thursday, 6:30-7:30

Career Launch encourages teens aged 13 to 18 to assess their skills and interests, explore careers, make sound educational decisions and prepares them to enter the work force. In this program, teens build their job-search skills and job

readiness by creating a career portfolio that includes their resume, cover letter, and  practice in writing  job applications.  Teens will also be able to participate in mock interviews with hiring managers.  Mentoring and job shadows round out this program. 

Upcoming Programs for Juniors

STEM works  

Meets: Tuesday, 5:30 – 6:30

Stem Works is a group that meets to complete science experiments, building projects, engineering tasks, and work with technology. We will be making Claymation videos and using our hands to build cities and different structures.

Smart Girls 

Meets: Monday, 5:30 – 6:30

Smart Girls is program that guides young women towards healthy attitudes and lifestyles, eating right and staying fit. It is an all-girl group that talks about issues that girls face in relationships with others, at school and at club.

Drama Club

Meets: Thursday and Friday, 5:30 – 6:30

Drama Club is a group that will play theatre games and skits when we meet. You will learn about different acting skills to use while performing. At the end, the group will put on performances for the club at special events.

Torch Club

Meets: Wednesday, 5:30 – 6:30

Torch Club is a leadership group that meets to plan special events and volunteer at the club. This elite group chooses officers for the club. We will elect a President of Torch Club, as well as a Vice-President, a treasurer and a secretary.

Selected Teens Go to ValleyFair

Ten teens raised money, participated in programs, and earned a spot on our Valley Fair trip this summer.  Teens left at 9:30 am and returned back to club around 6 pm.  They had a great time! Thank you to Erin Valadez, our Teen Director, who helped orchestrate this field trip!

Back to School Night

Our Back to School Night was a great success this year.  We would like to personally thank 3M and Thomson Reuters for donating school supplies and back packs to our members this year,.  Because of these donations we were able to make sure that nearly 100 members were fitted for backpacks and school supplies.

In order to get their backpacks and school supplies, our members had to write down three academic goals for the school year.  Our volunteers and members of the Keystone helped the younger members fill these out.

We ended with a nice dinner for all who came.  Look forward to seeing everyone September 8th when we open again and hear all about your first day!

Al Lenzmeier West Side Talent Show

For our end of summer programming, we hosted a talent Show that featured several dancers, singers, gymnasts', comedians and two plays.  We would like to thank Suzanne Cross, who comes to us from the Theatre Del Pueblo Theatre and donated time to teach a three week session to both our K-3rd and 4-6th grade members.  They were able to showcase a short skit that was member driven, written and acted. 

It was great to see so many parents and grandparents come for this event.  A special thanks to our STARS Coordinator, Teria Masterjohn and our Education Director, Samantha Hausker for facilitating this event!

Members of the Month

Staff have chosen our Members of the Month.  Members that are chosen for this honor exemplify great leadership skills, participate in programs, and show great citizenship.  Thank you to Serenity, Isaiah and Antwan for being great role models at our club.  Keep up the great work!

STARS Room Competitions

Yesterday in the STARS Room, members had the chance to participate in several different tournaments that included: UNO, Connect Four, Hangman, and Sight Word Bingo.  It was a wonderful sight to see all of these members engaged in literacy and having fun.

Theatre Class with Teatro Del Pueblo

We have been fortunate to have the Teatro Del Pueblo Theatre come to our club and facilitate drama classes to two groups: kindergarten through third grade and fourth through sixth grade.  Members have been learning different acting and performance skills, while learning the language of the theatre.  This is a wonderful opportunity for our members to gain a new skill.  Thank you to Suzanne Cross for volunteering your time with us.  here is the link to their theatre site as well:Teatro Del Pueblo

Juniors Field Trip to Como Zoo

On Monday, selected members aged 4th grade through sixth grade were chosen to participate in the field trip to the Como Zoo.  Members were able to see the primate exhibit, learn about polar bears with the newly installed IPADS and had a wonderful time eating lunch at the Zoo Cafe.  It was a beautiful day to be outside and roam the park!

Art with Coretta

Today members of the art club with Coretta learned about Mandalas.  Mandalas used to be made out of sand and it would take people a long time to make them.  People would watch them blow away in the wind as a symbol of letting go.  Today, members created their own mandalas choosing four colors that represent things about themselves. 

Last week members had the chance to create collages.  Before they began, Coretta explained that the word collage was a french word that means to glue.  An artist by the name of Picasso started turning this into an art form.  Members found pictures from magazines that symbolized characteristics of themselves and created their personal collages.

Leadership Camp

We had fifteen of our members aged 12-14 leave today to go to our Leadership Camp located at our very own camp called Voyageur in Mound, MN.  These members will be away for three nights where they will experience the wilderness and learn leadership skills.  Have a great time and see you in three days!

Teens Take Field Trip to History Museum

Career Day with Teens

Our teens had the privilege to go to American Engineering to learn about careers in the engineering field.  Thank you to American Engineering for taking time to meet with us!  Our teens appreciated it very much.

National Night Out Celebration

This year we had a fabulous time at our National Night Out Celebration.  Members had the chance to participate in carnival games like the bean bag toss, golf, duck pond, and ring toss for prizes as well as partake in treats provided like popcorn or cotton candy.  We also had a disc jockey playing music and served over 60 chickens to our members, their families, and friends within the community thanks to the generous donation by Augustana Lutheran Church.

A huge thanks to 3M and Old Navy for sending volunteers to help us orchestrate and run the games. It is because of you that we are able to do what we do!

Thank you to our Amazing Summer VISTAS!

This summer we have had the opportunity to have two summer VISTAS at our location from the Minnesota Literacy Council.  This will be our third year in this program and it has been a great addition to our K-3 STARS Program.  As an organization, we have made it our priority to make sure that every member can read by the third grade, with the goal of helping them improve their literacy skills and fight the summer slide.  With the help of our VISTAS, members are able to get  one on one reading instruction and improve their reading skills through enrichment activities and computer games.

Thank you for your hard work and dedication to literacy and our members.  You will be missed!