The Boys & Girls Club of Thompson is getting a $5,700 contribution towards its plans for outdoor beautification and improvements courtesy of 100 Women Who Care Thompson.
The money will go towards planned outdoor upgrades including hanging planters, a fence and archway for the parking lot, a ball hockey rink and exterior lighting.
“The idea behind a ball hockey court is providing our patrons a safe place to play and also providing the community with a solution to a gap that is apparent, with nowhere to play other than the streets,” said Boys & Girls Club executive director Andrew Smith in his pitch to 100 Women Who Care Thompson, a group of about 60 women at present who contribute $100 per individual or group four times a year to a local organization and vote on the winning submission.
“The work that the Boys & Girls Club does in Thompson is so visible so the fact that they can expand their programming [with exterior improvements],” was what convinced the majority of members to select its submission, said 100 Women Who Care Thompson vice-president Cara Butler.
Lighting will benefit not only the youth who come to the club but staff and people in the vicinity as well, said Smith.
“As of right now, we don’t have any security lighting in the parking lot so in the evenings when you come down here it’s pitch black and it’s simply not safe for our staff or the teens or the youth or anyone else around here,” he said.
100 Women Who Care is still working towards its goal of having 100 individual or group members so that it can donate $10,000 to worthy causes four times a year, Butler said.
“We get people move in and move out all the time but we welcome anyone,” she said. “There’s always room for more.”
