Members and friends of the new 21st Center Learning Center at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Westfield last fall. (THE WESTFIELD NEWS FILE PHOTO)
WESTFIELD – Since the closures due to COVID-19, the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield has been in the forefront in the city, giving out more than 350 grab & go dinners Mondays through Fridays for the youth in the city; providing fun, online activities and reaching out to keep in touch, and continuing in other ways to participate in Westfield’s response to the crisis.
This week, the Club will be adding shelf-stable weekend meal kits on Fridays to make sure families have enough food over the weekend.
The Club has also continued to pay all of their full and part time staff salaries, and the staff are completing online professional development training to ensure they are providing the highest quality service possible.
“Our Club may be closed, but our team of 40+ exemplary staff members are working hard to ensure that no child or family in our community is left behind during this public health crisis,” wrote the Club administration in a recent newsletter.
On Giving Tuesday Now, May 5, a global day of giving created to raise funds for the emergency pandemic, the community has an opportunity to give back to the Boys & GIrls Club for all that they are doing, and to have their gifts matched.
“Our C.E.O Bill Parks and his wife Jan matched the first $1,000 we received in #GivingTuesdayNow donations. And our friends Rob Levesque from R Levesque Associates, Inc., the Westfield/ West Springfield Elks Club, Mark Morin from Morin & O’Shea PC, and the Kevin Sullivan Fund are matching the next $9,000,” the Club announced this week.
“That means if we receive $10,000 in donations on our website (www.bgcwestfield.org) or facebook page by Tuesday…we will actually raise $20,000 to support our free meal sites and virtual programming, and to sustain the Club while we prepare to reopen.”
The Boys & Girls Club is currently preparing its summer program in hopes of opening its “doors to the future” on June 30.
