After our Clubs being closed for a couple of months, the team at Boys and Girls Club Surrey were excited that we were able to welcome back some of our members starting in July. Our numbers had to be drastically reduced so we could adhere to the provincial health guidelines, but it was fantastic connecting in person again with our members who really need us the most.
Virtual Programming
For July and August, we continued our virtual programming with specific pre-teen programs, such as What’s New Monday which consisted of games and challenges (all ages), Trivia Tuesday, Pre-teen Lounge, which consisted of some leadership programs but mostly games and a space for the youth to hang out, and Fitness Friday.
Some notable things from the summer months:
During the summer months role-playing games (RPG) became popular as a virtual program during pre-teen lounge. In these games, there is a narrator who leads characters through a quest and on every turn allows them to choose their actions and then see the outcomes of the actions they chose. This RPG features wizards, goblins, healers, and trolls, all with special abilities. A few of our pre-teens got super creative, taking the time to make their characters exactly right and plan all of their actions and it was a hit.
Trivia Tuesday was another program that some of our pre-teens counted as their favorite. One participant in particular suggested new trivia topics he wanted to see every week and came prepared with the research for the topic so he could share his knowledge on the topic as well.
Summer Camp
We also had a number of our pre-teens in our summer camps this year. While camp looked a lot different, we did try to do some special things to keep the summer fun.
Sports Day was a day of fun and friendly competition between the activities like “Pool Noodle Races” where the kids had to race each other while keeping a pool noodle between their legs, “Backwards Maze” where they worked together with their teams to lead someone through a maze walking backwards, and “sponge Relay” where kids filled a sponge with water and ran a cup back and forth until it was filled with water.
Surrey Carnival was an event on the last day of camp to honour our regular Fraserview Carnival which was cancelled this year. We had many different games such as Duck Hunt, X marks the spot, fire the cannon, and many more. The pre-teens particularly likes the came “bottle flip: which came from a popular internet red they love and the silly string battle where they go to choose a staff to try and douse with as much silly string as they could from 6 feet away.
After School Programs
Due to COVID-19, we had to restrict the number of members that can come to the Club each day. We are currently operating at 30% capacity, but still have a number of our pre-teens attending in person. Here’s what our September looked like:
Basketball workshop:
Basketball is definitely a favorite amount our youth at the club we noticed some of them not being comfortable playing with the other youth because they haven’t learned the basics. So, we planned a basketball workshop with some of our pre-teens so no one would feel left out. Everyone could enjoy the game together. One of our pre-teens who loves basketball even helped us out teaching some of the other kids!
Orange shirt day:
We had several programs running to acknowledge the legacy of residential schools and spread the message that every child matters. One of these programs was called Kindness Boxes where every participant made a paper box, and everyone filled other boxes with kind messages about them. Our pre-teens have done similar programs before so they took it upon themselves to help (at a safe distance of course) some of the younger kids who were struggling with making the boxes as an unintentional act of kindness, showing us again the great leaders that they are in the club! Below is a picture of the shirts that the pre-teens created to support orange shirt day.
Thank you for continuing to support the important work we are doing with the youth (virtual and in-person) at the Surrey Club while we navigate through these unprecedented times!
To learn more about how you can volunteer with Surrey Community charities like Boys and Girls Club Surrey and Rick’s Heart Foundation, click here!
