DAR Boys & Girls Club celebrates 109th anniversary

MARINETTE/MENOMINEE, MICH. - The Marinette/Menominee DAR Boys & Girls Club first opened their doors in 1915 as part of the YMCA during the Daughters of the American Revolution and has maintained its name out of respect to the founders. According to CEO Koreen Gardon, it has grown into a program that furthers education and prepares participants for the workforce over time. The club offers various programs, including a sensory room funded by the Superior Health Foundation, arts and crafts, a Learning Center and STEM activities with virtual reality headsets.

“All of our rooms are run by trained volunteers or staff members and have structured activities going on by a trained staff or volunteer,” Gardon said.
The club serves children ages seven to 18, with a focus on life skills and mental health. On school days, the club is open from 3-7 p.m. On days off, the club is open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. During the summer, the club offers a day camp program from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Gardon, who has been with the club for 24 years, highlighted the club’s efforts to provide a safe space for children, especially during the pandemic, through grants and community support.

“When the club was first founded, it was boxing, it was leather craft, it was all these things that were popular at the time,” Gardon said, “After COVID and everything with that, there was a major concern for the mental health of our kids. So we saw that need and we made a sensory group to kind of help redirect our kids, give them that safe space to redirect,” she said.

The needs of the nation’s youth are constantly changing, and no one is more familiar with that than the people who work to meet those needs.

“As we saw the needs of our kids change, we actually hired a part time behavioral specialist with that special needs education to help our kids that are struggling in identifying the difference between behaviors or sensory overload,” Gardon said.

Volunteers are also trained to handle the epidemics facing kids today.

“We have quite strict protocols that volunteers must go through,” Gardon said. “Everybody is run through a background check. There is a lot of online training, and then hands on, one-on-one training with our staff as well. We want to make sure that they have all the resources that they need to do the job well, as all of our kids are coming with different trauma nowadays too. So to help our staff prepare for that trauma and how to handle that at the end of the day too, otherwise they won’t be able to be successful in their jobs either,” she said.

While the club serves mostly kids in elementary to early middle school, Gardon has pushed to create a room for older teens as well.

“They have their own mini club where they have computers, board games and a lot of video games,” she said. “We run prevention programs for teens, a career launch program and Torch club, which teaches the importance of giving back in the community. It’s a really neat program for them to have their own safe space. They can hang out, they can go throughout the club and do gym or art with the other kid, but when they may need that time away, they can just come here and hang out,” Gardon said.

The Learning Center is the heart of the club, according to Gardon, because it provides an opportunity for staff to encourage kids to do their homework.

“Parents are really busy,” Gardon said, “And sometimes some of the families we serve don’t always have that structure at home. So we wanna be there for our kids that truly need us most – giving them that support, making sure that they know education is truly important.”

“Outside of that, everything we try to do beyond homework is really that hidden learning, those life skills,” Gardon said, “So whether it’s science club, cooking club, math or measurements, you need to learn how to cook and bake to survive, right? So we teach those life skills in a fun and hands-on way.”

The workforce development room is a great place for kids to test out different career paths, according to Gardon.

“We have STEM programming, Lego robotics and coding,” she said. “We want to show them different opportunities, different career clusters that they can dabble in and see what’s available, what they’re interested in. So they’re not going to school wanting to be a nurse and spend a couple semesters and then they do a lab and they see blood and realize, this isn’t for me. We can rule that out here and get them exposed to different things that might be of interest to them, and they don’t waste money after they’ve already gotten engaged in school and different pieces,” Gardon added.

In recent years, the club invited an artist to join the kids in their arts and crafts room and inspire them to create.

“There was a local artist that came into town that did artwork based on color. So our kids took it to a really simple level, into like the rainbow, red, orange, yellow and green. Then they did some pictures along the outside,” Gardon said.
The club has seen a 20% increase in membership in the past year and is currently fundraising for a new roof.

“The club is in the heart of where our community truly needs to be for our kids and our families that need us most,” Gardon said, “For our 100th anniversary we did a campaign, and we were able to put in new doors, windows and new boiler, and we’re at the point now where we need a new roof. Our kids need that safe space to learn and grow,” she added.

Anyone interested in donating can do so at https://thedar.ejoinme.org/Roof.

“We’re asking for any community support to help us out with that program. They can reach out to the club and call us, or reach out to me, and I’m happy to talk more to anybody about it, but we’re just hoping that the roof will be around for many more generations of kids, because we’re not going anywhere. Our kids need us,” Gardon said.

Community support is crucial to the club’s success, and they host events like the Halloween Penny Carnival and Community Kids Day to engage local families.

Gardon said she’s heard feedback from many local families, most of which is overwhelmingly positive.

“Families have written letters where they express how grateful they are to know their child is safe while they’re at work so they can focus on work,” she said. “We heard from one person, not too long ago, who said they didn’t know what they would have done without the club. They said, ‘I probably would have left my child home alone because I still had the work. I was a single parent. I didn’t have the extra funds.’ That’s why we’re here – to service the families who need us most,” Gardon said.

The club also collaborates with various community partners, including UW Extension and the Healthy Youth Coalition, to run prevention and nutritional programs.

Some of the club’s upcoming events include Teen Night from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8 and the annual Turkey Bowl party on Tuesday, Nov. 26.