Mid Winter Update

What's Going On - Activities
After a long winter's nap, we are back and shakin in the after school programs!  This is the time of year where we really begin to feel cabin fever creeping up on us. To battle this mid-winter inconvenience, our staff is continuously planning fun and engaging activities for our members.

Arts and crafts projects, "Fun Foods" enrichment sessions, Aerobic/Fitness Sessions, board game tournaments, and sports competitions are some of the many weekly activities keeping our kids busy!

What's Going On - Educationally 

While our parents appreciate their children having fun, they also appreciate when their children complete their homework in the Power Hour program. The Power Hour program continues lay a strong foundation in our program.   Before the students are eligible to participate in any daily activity or enrichment session, they must complete their homework to the best of their abilities!  Let me also mention that PSE&G helped sponsor our Power Hour program in the 2012 school year., and we are very thankful for that!

Honorary Mentions

The West Orange Community House and Boys & Girls Club has been honored with a few outstanding schools/organizations who have been volunteering at a few of our sites.  The Montclair Kimberly Academy student volunteers join the Washington School Program weekly to assist the students with homework, daily activities, and sports tournaments.  The other organization is the National Council of Jewish Women who has provided top notch volunteers to our Gregory School Program(see below).

MORE PICS of the Programs!! Dancing, Fun Foods, Youth Of The Month, Pizza Parties!

Making Better Decisions for Stronger Futures

While we may appear to be just an after-school program to some,  we are much more than that.  Program supervision and providing a safe and enjoyable environment is important, however we also strive to reach our members with other areas to help them with decision making skills that will follow them throughout their lives. 

Of course our program offers fun activities, games, snack, and homework help but we also have implemented some pretty powerful Boys & Girls Club programs to help with our mission. This year we have once again implemented our Healthy Habits program, Smart Moves program, Power Hour/ Project Learn, and Triple Play Challenges programs.  These programs help encourage our member to make better decisions to be healthier, fit, and more confident in school and with their friends.

Our Healthy Habits program has been a pretty big hit this year.  Along with running our own Healthy Habits curriculum, we invited in a nutritionist from West Orange Shoprite to teach our kids about eating healthy!  Lachell Miller visits each site once a month to discuss the importance of healthy eating and facilitates a fun edible project. Here are some pictures of Lachell's sessions.

To help members improve their confidence, we are proud to continue providing Smart Moves at each site.   Besides facilitating our regular sessions, every year we like to invite Gale Richter (from B.A.B.E.S.) to run a few sessions on a few different topics.   Her initial sessions, Gale discussed the effects of Drugs and Alcohol and how to avoid accidental ingestion.   Subsequent sessions included discussions about bullying and how to avoid such situations.  Gale also ran fun activities to reinforce her topics.

Besides our incredible visitors, our staff has been monumental in helping us achieve our goals (helping each of our members make the best decisions for a brighter future).  Every day our staff gives our members all of their hearts and attention.  Keeping our children safe and supervised is an important part of their positions, but they go above and beyond helping them in any way they can.  Whether it's with homework, the best way to throw a football, or even help tie their shoes, our staff is there!