Boys and Girls Club community spirit is still intact after St. Anthony fire
CBC
The St. Anthony, N.L., Boys and Girls club is "starting to dream about what's possible to make the community even stronger" after its building was destroyed by a fire, said national CEO Owen Charters.
The Boys and Girls Club was centered in a historic Grenfell Mission property that stood in the Northern Peninsula community for over 100 years. It was a home base for after school programs and other resources for children and youth.
Even though the structure is in disrepair, the community is persevering.
Programming at the St. Anthony club usually consisted of recreation, arts and crafts and other developmental activities. It was also a space for students to study, do homework, and have a meal.
BGC Canada represents clubs all across the country, and the CEO said the wider organization is there to help St. Anthony. Charters said the need to rebuild is an opportunity to expand what the club can do for youth.
"What could a club be now? And what should the kids want?" Charters said the organization is asking itself.
The kids' ideas for a new permanent club ranged from tall slides to chickens to a library, he said.
"I'm not sure we'll have chickens, but … [we are] really starting to work with the community now," Charters told CBC News.
In the meantime, the club has been welcomed to use community spaces such as the local school, arena, and mall.
Charters said the provincial government has committed to be the "primary funder" for a new Boys and Girls Club in St. Anthony once a suitable piece of land is found. He hopes to have a new space up and running within the next three years.
Clubs that provide space for young people like the Boys and Girls Club are the heartbeat of rural towns like St. Anthony, said Charters, so the community is making sure those programs can still happen without a permanent space.
"We talked to many families there, but we've also interviewed youth who've come through the club … and they said if the club were not there, quite literally, they feel their future pathway would have been quite different," he said.
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