The Boys and Girls Club

Eliza Griffin
Monday, December 12, 2011
First Visit

 Today was my first visit to the Boys and Girls Club of America in New London. From the initial meeting about our assessment projects where I selected this organization, I envisioned The Boys and Girls Club to be a large building, similar to a community center, filled with boys and girls of all ages from the areas surrounding New London. What I entered instead, this afternoon, was a public school cafeteria which also served as a gym with only 12 boys and girls inside . During our first half hour, we set up an obstacle course and divided the girls and the boys into 2 teams. Each team raced one another through the course and in the end the boys team won twice while the girls team only won once. Then second half hour was called “ Power Hour”. During this time, the children are expected to do their homework and then read for half an hour. One of the girls was reading the book No Talking, by Andrew Clements, which was a book that I had read and enjoyed when I was her age. Once this is achieved, they are permitted to have free time to play silent games such as Uno. I had expected the kids to be all ages and today the youngest was in Kindergarten and the oldest was a fourth grader. This age range made it very easy and comfortable for me to play with the children because I have a younger sister who is in fourth grade. All the kids, had a lot of energy for participating in the obstacle course, but also listened and obeyed well when it was time for the Power Hour. Their discipline impressed me and they also seemed to appreciate that I was there which I had not expected. They all thanked me when I left which surprised me very much.