Palmetto Boys & Girls Club helps area children with programs supported by annual Christmas tree sale

By CARL MARIO NUDI

The Boys & Girls Club of Manatee County has been selling Christmas trees to raise funds for 64 years.

They sell around 800 trees and raised between $30,000 and $35,000, according to Drue Duerschmidt, marketing and communications manager for the organization.

“This is one of our top fundraisers,” Duerschmidt said. “This year, as in the past three years, we have sold out.” 

Willie Cooper, who has been with Boys & Girls Club of Manatee County for 37 years, has been in charge of the Christmas tree sales lot for the past six years.

“When I was a kid I would help with selling trees,” said Cooper, the community relations director for the club. “It’s like second nature to me now.”

He said he remembered when he was a young boy the trees would arrive by train and be dropped off by the Tropicana plant where they were loaded onto trucks to be brought to the sales lot on Manatee Avenue West in front of the Jesse P. Miller Elementary School.

Buying a Christmas tree was a direct way of helping support the work the Boys & Girls Club does in the community.

“Manatee County is such a wonderful, down-to-earth community,” said Dawn Stanhope, president of the Boys & Girls Club of Manatee County. “They are very committed to our kids.”

Stanhope said the organization has a $3.5 million yearly budget and serves 3,500 children at five clubs.

Three are two traditional clubs, the DeSoto Club on 34th Street and 53rd Avenue West in Bradenton and the Palmetto Club, at 1600 10th St. W. in Palmeto.

There are also three school-based clubs at Daughtrey, Oneco, and Rogers Garden-Bullock elementary schools.

The Palmetto Boys & Girls Club began in 1957 with a baseball program and began full-time operation in a frame building in 1960.

In 1971, a new building was constructed, and in 2010, a new facility replaced the old building.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County has after school and summer programs for children from ages 5 through 18.

They focus on academic success, healthy lifestyles and good character and citizenship, said Angie Sims, director of the Palmetto club.

Sims, who came to the Palmetto club a year ago after working for the Metro Atlanta Boys & Girls Club since 2000, said the national organization’s mission statement has been her inspiration.

The mission statement reads: “To enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.”

“It’s going on 20 years and (at the club) I see the wheels of the mission statement going and keeping me motivated,” Sims said.

The Palmetto club serves seven different schools and about 300 children a day.

During the school year all the Manatee Boys & Girls Clubs offer after-school programs, and during the summer break they switch gears to provide different programs.

On a recent tour of the Palmetto facility, with club members, Taya, 13, an eighth-grader at Palmetto Charter School; John, 14, a ninth grader at Palmetto High School; and Marcus, 15, a 10th-grader at Palmetto High acting as guides, the work done in the spacious and brightly decorated facility was presented.

“This is for the 5- through 12-year-olds to do arts and crafts,” said John as the group of visitors walked into a classroom with tables filled with objects to be glued, tied, painted, and/or assembled. “Also where we hold birthday parties in here.”

“Today the kids were making snowmen with pine cones from the Christmas trees being sold on our lot,” Sims added.

In the computer room for the younger members, John said the students learn reading, math, and science and other subjects with computer programs.

The programs have incentives built into them.

“They have to accomplish goals to earn ‘coins,’ which they use for other activities,” Sims said.

The Learning Center was for members ages 5 through 12 “where they do their homework for about one hour when they first come to the club,” said Marcus. “When there is no school the room is used for movies.”

All of the learning classrooms rim the Game Room, a large area with Ping-Pong and pool tables, air hockey tables, a carpet pool game, and other activities the members can engage with when not in a classroom.

The next stop on the tour was the Fun Zone where no electronic devices are allowed.

Here the children play chess and other board games. There also are books and a Foosball table.

Lynn Meier, who has been volunteering at the club for about a year, teaches chess, along with volunteer David Zenner.

“I love to teach chess, and these kids love it also,” Meier said.

The tour guides led the group outdoors to show off the covered patio, ball fields and playground area.

“This is where we eat our sandwiches,” said Taya, pointing to tables on the patio. “We also share the playground with Palmetto Elementary (which is next door to the Palmetto Boys & Girls Club facility).”

Soccer, flag football, baseball, kickball, and any game that uses a ball are played on the ball field, Sims explained.

“During the school year our focus is on academics, and we work with the parents and schools,” she said. “In the summer we take a lot of field trips where the kids have a chance to go to places like LEGOLAND^® and skating.” 

Entering the building again, the visitors are taken into the large gymnasium.

“We host a lot of (community) activities in the gym,” Sims said. “Palmetto Charter School uses it for basketball, there are fundraising events, and there are even shows performed here.”

“This gym gets a lot of use,” Stanhope said.

“It can hold 535 people,” Sims added.

In a room off of the gymnasium was a special place for tweens.

“This is a place for kids too big for the 5- to 11-year-old activities and too young for the 13- to 18-year-old programs,” said Sims.

Allen Jones, known as AJ, is the tween specialist at the club.

“I was a venture capitalist,” said Jones, who has been with the club for a year. “I owned my own business for 25 years and wanted to give back to the community.

“The kids giving back to me is the biggest reward (of working at the club),” he said. “The learning goes both ways, especially when I see their growth and learning.”

Sims said Jones was starting a pilot program for mentoring tweens.

The staff will be trained on the key points on how to connect with the children.

“Lots of kids come from single-parent homes and are missing that link of a positive role models in their lives,” Sims said.

The program will provide mentors the children can look up to and go to with their problems, Jones said.

“When kids lose club privileges it usually is because of their behavior,” he said. “But they are the ones that need us the most.”

Before the final stop of the tour, the Teen Room, Sims pointed out a kitchen where they prepare food to feed the teens that stay at the club late.

In the Teen Room, Marcus said, “We usually do our homework first thing when we get here.”

But there are different activities that are fun, and focus on different career path, he said.

Josh Arberry, the teen program manager, has been with the Palmetto club for three months.

“I went to the Boys and Girls Club when I was younger,” Arberry said. “It’s a great place to go after school.”

He said he has a degree in education and thought he could use it in this job.

The Teen Room also has a separate room with computers the students can use.

There also is a completely furnished sound studio, but it was not being used, Sims said.

“We need someone who knows how to use the equipment,” she said. “Maybe someone will volunteer.”

To volunteer or learn more about the Palmetto Boys and Girls Club call Angie Sims at 941-722-1268.

For more information about the Boys and Girls Club of Manatee County visit its web site at www.bgcmanatee.org.

The Boys and Girls Club will be selling Christmas trees until Dec. 19 at 3913 Manatee Ave. W. Parking is available in the Westgate Shopping Center next to the tree lot.

Hours are noon to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday; noon to 9 p.m., Friday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday; and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday.