It is now that time of year that every school kid will talk about for the rest of their lives. Summer vacation! Long days, warm nights. Plenty of time for fun and mischief. But it’s that mischief part that might be the most memorable. And that is where Pueblo’s Becky Medina and her staff come in.
Medina is the Chief Operations Officer of Boys & Girls Club of Pueblo County. While it may not be all up to her, she certainly has a say on just what a lot of the county’s young people will be spending their time on from now until school starts again and well beyond.
“It’s the vision of the organization,” said Medina, “that every young person who enters our doors…is exposed to safe and supportive organizational opportunities.” By that, Medina means structure and supervision, making positive use of a young person’s leisure time.
Pueblo County’s Boys & Girls Club has just expanded into Pueblo West, perhaps the fastest growing community in all of southern Colorado.
The Boys & Girls Club unlocked the doors last fall to a new clubhouse in Pueblo West. The Liberty Point International School is now not only a safe haven for young people but also the epicenter for an array of activities designed for a single purpose. To engage young minds.
The Liberty Point clubhouse, one of several Boys & Girls centers across the city and the sprawling county, Medina said, is more than a port in the storm. It’s a kind of ‘ground-zero’ for intellectual and social stimulation. “It’s quality after school programming,” said Medina, “that lends itself to both emotional safety and also improves academics.”
What takes place at Liberty Point or other county Boys & Girls Clubs is not spending time playing games and doing arts and crafts, though those things are included. But Medina says it’s so much more. “We have ‘power hour,’ she said. “Students can have the opportunity to complete their homework, and we also provide opportunity for them to participate in high-yield learning, building academic skills.” Some of the games they might play, are games designed with the purpose of helping “build skills…writing and reading,” as just two examples.
But it’s not just exercising the mind, the Alamosa native said. There are also activities that take participants outside. “They play in sports leagues, even within the Boys & Girls club.” Additionally, she said, they have conservation programs, fishing, biking, organized hikes and interacting with the local Audubon Society.
Medina, a trained biologist, says one of the things the kids are working on now is a pollinator garden. It’s a hands-on experiment and experience with a garden that attracts bees, an insect essential to the things that make up the world. There are pollinator gardens at three different schools.
Growing up in Alamosa, there was nothing like a Boys & Girls Club. “My parents both worked, and my brother and I were left to our own devices.” While everything worked out, Medina said, her and her brother’s experience mirrored what so many families deal with. Parents, she said, sometimes have to make these kinds of choices.
The nine Boys & Girls clubhouses that Medina oversees have rules but rules that are not necessarily strict. But one thing that is enforced is something too many kids (and adults) spend far too much time on. “Our club discourages using phones,” she said. When a young person enters the clubhouse, phones go off. “You’d be surprised,” said Medina. “There is not a lot of push-back. In fact, a lot of parents really support us.” There’s a bit more ‘negotiating’ with middle and high school kids.
While the job requires a lot of administration, Medina has also spent a good deal of time ‘in the trenches’ with young people. Before becoming COO, she worked as a volunteer sharing her expertise with clubhouse regulars and mentoring in the science, math and engineering side of the club. It was that experience that solidified her connection to what she does today. “It fills your bucket.”
