The Club

The Madison Square Boys & Girls Club of New York City has been the second home to so many young people throughout the years. It is helped kids stay off the street and do something recreational. Many staff members have been like parents to the young members. I remember having many people I looked up to while I was a member. The Madison Square Boys & Girls Club has seven local branches throughout the 5 boroughs. They serve as a refuge for kids living in unsafe neighborhoods. They get to participate in sports, arts and crafts, drug prevention programs and computer programs just to name a few. It helps kids ages between the ages of 7-18.

I was able to get in contact with a good friend of my family, Wyndy Sloan, who is the Director of Marketing and Communication for the "club." She says that in previous years, she was never able to convince clubhouse executives that using new ways of communication was a good thing. With almost all of the board members being over the age of 50, one knows how difficult that could be. She says that it wasn't until some board members began to watch television commercials talking about these tools such as facebook and myspace that they began to spread the word to other members pushing them to do it in hopes of increasing membership and reaching out to club alums. With Sloan's help, the club has been able to reach over 2500 alums and membership has increased throughout its 7 city branches. It is an amazing thing.

She says in this age you have to be able to reach kids by what they are doing. So many of our members are on social networks. "It has become their new escape because they put everything up there. By becoming a part of it, we remind them about us and make sure that they never forget about us. They will always be able to comeback," Sloan Continued. This is a good thing because New York City has plenty of troubled teens who need something to help them maintain. For some, it has been the club. For others, it has been school or somethng else positive. But for more of the majority it has been nothing. These are the people that go to selling drugs, getting killed or ending up in jail. The club must not only reach out to them but to everyone. We can't lose the club.