U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay said he understands why Ferguson would welcome a new Boys & Girls Club.
“Some of our kids here in Ferguson are scared,” Clay said. “They have good reason to feel that way. The things they saw and heard shook all of us to the core.”
Clay spoke Monday, June 8 in Ferguson Middle School’s cafeteria, where the community celebrated the first day of summer camp at The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis’ newest location.
Private donors raised about a half-million dollars for startup and operating costs for the first year of programming, Shuntae Ryan, spokesperson for the clubs, told St. Louis Public Radio. They included the Deaconess Foundation, the Regional Business Council and Centene.
The new club in Ferguson comes after months of unrest following the August 9 Ferguson police killing of 18-year-old unarmed teenager Michael Brown Jr. Students in the Ferguson-Florissant school district were delayed from starting the 2014-2015 school year by two weeks as a result of continuing protests and militarized police response. Gov. Jay Nixon declared states of emergency in Ferguson in August and again in November following the grand jury decision not to indict the police shooter.
Living in Ferguson over the past year has been rough, Blessing Hasan, 14, told St. Louis Public Radio.
“I live up the street from where Mike Brown got shot,” Hasan said. “There was a lot of looting, and some of the stores I live by got burned down.”
Hasan said her mother signed her up for the summer camp, but she wanted to come for the arts and music classes.
About 200 students, ages 6 to 15, signed up for the full-day program in Ferguson, which includes outdoor activities, field trips and classes. In the fall, The Ferguson Middle School Boys & Girls Club will host after-school activities for youth ages 6-18 in North St. Louis County.
It’s The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis’ sixth location in the region. The organization, which is dedicated to enhancing the lives of youth, has been in the region for nearly 50 years. The original location was the Herbert Hoover’s Boys & Girls Club located in North St. Louis on North Grand Boulevard.
Robert Givens, 15, an aspiring engineer attending the camp in Ferguson, told St. Louis Pubic Radio he is looking forward to field trips and robotics classes. The past year, he said, has been “hectic.” He lives just a few blocks from the Ferguson Police Station, where nightly protests continued for months after the August 9 killing of Brown. In March, two police officers were shot outside the station following a protest.
“I’m glad that the community is healing, and I’m glad that the new center is open,” Givens told St. Louis Pubic Radio. “I feel like it will open a lot of opportunities for us.”
Dozens of children sat anxiously in the school’s cafeteria on Monday as speakers expressed their joy for the new location. Those in attendance included Flint Fowler, president of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis, County Executive Steve Stenger, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles and Dellwood Mayor Reggie Jones.
“We have an obligation to show them that even though tragic things happen,” Clay said of the youth, “the future they will build and the world they will inherit will be better than today.”
For more information, visit www.bgcstl.org.
This story is published as part of a partnership between The St. Louis American and The Huffington Post.
