WHITNEY PIER, N.S. — Chester Borden really wants to be back in the club providing services for children and youth.
But he also knows, when they can open the doors again at the Boys and Girls Club in Whitney Pier, it’s going to be very different and they’ll be reeling from losing tens of thousands in revenue.
“The structure of our club is going to change a lot,” said Borden, who is anticipating a reduction in the number of youth they can have in programs once they can reopen.
“Right now, we’re losing about $10,000 a month in membership fees. We can’t do our Race for the Kids fundraiser. That usually raises about $10,000. Our signs out front, I can’t go asking for businesses to sponsor us right now when so many are closed.”
Like other Boys and Girls Clubs in the province, the Whitney Pier location was closed as part of the Nova Scotia government’s strategy to flatten the COVID-19 curve. Since then, Borden and his staff have been delivering food hampers (in partnership with local schools) to more than 100 families weekly. They’ve also been providing programs to youth online like virtual activities, family pizza making night and Flex Your Head — a youth mental health program regularly run at the club.
“Some of these kids, they just want to get on there and chat, to socialize. One little girl, this teenager, really opened my eyes (at the end of a virtual scavenger hunt),” he said.
“I assumed as an older person, youth loved their technology… She said, I’m tired of playing games, I'm tired of being online. I just want to sit. I want to go to school. I want to talk with my friends, hang out… Everyone is missing that. They just want to get back. They miss their club… I miss the kids.”
New Brunswick Boys and Girls Clubs recently opened a few locations, but with new regulations on staff — youth ratios, there are changes to capacity numbers and activities. How clubs there deal with the changes is being watched by the national and Nova Scotia chapters and Borden said he plans to speak with the director in Fredericton for suggestions on how they’re handling the new structure.
John Burton, the delegate from the Nova Scotia Boys and Girls Clubs, is meeting with the province’s chief medical officer Dr. Robert Strang this week to discuss what public health guidelines clubs in the province will need to follow. After this meeting, Borden hopes they’ll know when they can open.
But once they do, Borden knows he’ll have to deal with the loss of between $40,000 and $50,000 while closed for at least three months.
“The financial stuff will have to be looked at. We can’t survive like this...Right now, we have some grants for September to June that can be used as emergency funding that we used from March to June. But after that… It’s going to be tough,” he said. “We’re at the mercy of public health. It’s a waiting game.”
