Story originally printed in the Holmen Courier or online at www.holmencourier.com
Published - Thursday, July 10, 2008
Holmen youth center numbers are down sharply since move from church to high school
Moving from the Holmen Lutheran Church to the high school for the summer might have caused a drop in attendance at the Boys & Girls Club of Holmen.
According to Ewell Bryant, the site supervisor, since the move, average daily attendance is down almost half; from about 40-45 to 15-20.
“I don’t know if they don’t know we’re here, or they don’t want to be back in the school building, but so far they are not coming in,” Bryant said. Since it’s the first summer for the program in Holmen, Bryant said it’s hard to say if this is a normal drop in attendance due to summer activities and vacations.
Bryant did say there were eight new members. But he thinks if they had stayed at the church, they would have kept the numbers up to the normal range.
The group moved from the Holmen Lutheran Church to the high school because of a conflict with the hours the youth wanted to be there and summer activities at the church. In the fall, the club will go back to the church.
When asked whether they would rather be at the church or the school, six youths yelled simultaneously, “the church!”
“That’s wonderful to hear they want to go to the church,” said Sonya Davig Huesmann, president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater La Crosse and a Holmen Area Partnership for Youth member. “We were concerned that we would turn kids off by being at a church. But I’m glad they feel comfortable there. That means we’re making an impact. We’ll be going back to the church in the fall.”
Huesmann said membership was at about 80, stretching the capacity of the church facility.
“What’s really neat,” Huesmann continued, “at the last couple of HAPY meetings, youth members of the club spoke to us as a committee. It really opens your eyes about how they really need this kind of place to go, a safe place. It shows we’re making an impact. This community is so big now. A community center would be wonderful for this community.”
Laurie Kessler, one of the founding members of the group, said, “What we need is $1 million. They want a home of their own. If anyone’s got $1 million and identifies with the cause and feels strongly about youth in the community, give me a call right away!”
Until then, at least for the summer, the youth center will be at the high school and then back to the church in the fall. “The biggest change (moving to the high school) is the intimacy level. It’s just not the same feeling,” Bryant said. Nevertheless, Bryant said the school has helped them a lot.
“The high school gave us a lot of neat equipment, like TV projectors and ping pong tables,” Bryant said. “We got some couches from the TLC and brought over games and puzzles from the church. So there are much the same things to do here.”
There have been field trips to Mt. Olympus at the Dells and other trips scheduled throughout the summer such as to Pettibone Beach, Fort McCoy, fishing and canoeing and bowling.
The club also has computer games to play on Playstation 2, an Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.
The club accepts any students from sixth grade to age 18. Teens can drop into the center when it’s open on Mondays 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. or Thursdays from 2 to 8 p.m. “It’s a family feeling here,” said Bryant. “Everyone gets along. Average eighth-grade girls bicker amongst themselves, but not here. Kids that usually don’t say a word at school come and they talk all the time.”
All stories copyright 2006 Holmen Courier and other attributed sources.