In a post-election climate that may still be dividing friends, the Cindy Platt Boys & Girls Club of Transylvania County is teaching its children how to keep friends and make new ones through tolerance and kindness.
Club staffers recognized that adults were often at odds over the presidential election race back in the fall, at the height of the campaign. So they declared October “Be a Friend Month” and began daily projects among the more than 250 children who attend their after-school activities each day.
“During the homeroom period, right after they arrive, we began discussions and lessons and projects,” said Sarah St.Marie, one of the organization’s joint operations directors, “all designed to teach them about the importance of friends and friendship. That’s how they started the day.”
The children, from kindergarten age into their teens, composed poems, designed posters and drew comic strips, all to reinforce the theme of friendship. The activities were guided by club staffers, who pointed out the ways people make friends, especially through kindness.
“We taught them how to say nice things to each other,” said St.Marie. It’s often hard for people, especially children, to do that, she said.
“That shouldn’t be. We need to start forming different habits,” she said. Talk to the children at the club and you find out the message of “Be a Friend Month” has taken root, and is growing. For instance, a group of fifth grade girls came up with a poster and 11-year-old Amyiah Robinson, of Brevard, penned this slogan for it: “Good Friends… Hard to Find, Hard to Leave, Impossible to Forget” “Yup, and that’s true,” she said ingenuously one day last week as she and her friends showed off the poster.
Her cousin, Cienah Robinson, 10, also of Brevard, joined in enthusiastically. “Friends are important,” she exclaimed. “You’ll always need them in your life!”
It’s rewarding for the staff to see such club initiatives blossom, said club Executive Director Candice Walsh. “That’s what we’re all about at the Boys & Girls Club… building good character to make good citizens.”
The club’s official mission is to enable young people, especially those most in need, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. “That,” says Walsh, “is as important to our community and its future as anything you can imagine.”
The club currently has more than 400 boys and girls as members, making it the largest youth organization in the Transylvania County. Most of its activities are held in its 25,000-square-foot Gallimore Road clubhouse in Brevard. It was founded in 1999 by the late Cindy Platt, for whom it was later named. The Club focuses on three core outcome areas – ensuring academic success, cultivating healthy lifestyles and nurturing good character and citizenship.