Coming Full Circle
By Aretha

When I was a kid attending the Boys and Girls Clubs of Summit County, I enjoyed the support of the staff, the fun outings, and the feeling of belonging to a great program that helped kids like me. 

Now as a staff member, I am able to give back to my community and to the program that helped keep me and my friends off the street. Boys and Girls Clubs of Summit County provides daily accessible services such as tutoring, educational games, art projects, computer experience, and even sports that are designed to enhance the social, educational, leadership, and character development of at-risk youth.

Club kids get to participate in such activities as having BBQ’s, attending Cleveland Indians games, meeting a local judge, and attending a show at the Carousel Dinner Theater.

I recently ran into a group of young high school girls who had been members of the Summit County Boys and Girls Clubs. I was so pleased to find that I had been able to teach them through my experience of being a young mother and that they had really taken to heart that some choices are not worth your lost childhood.

 I am now the mother of two children and have recently received my Associates degree in Business Management and plan to continue on to get my Bachelor’s degree. When I meet people I knew as a child who did not attend the Boys and Girls clubs and I see where they are, I am so thankful that I was able to be a part of a great program that kept me on the right track.

With the help of your kind gifts to organizations like the United Way of Summit County, the caring and loving staff of Boys and Girls Clubs of Summit County is able to support, guide, inspire, and teach kids that they can overcome anything that is thrown at them. It really is the club that “beats the streets”.