CORONAVIRUS: BOYS & GIRLS CLUB DISTRIBUTING BAGS OF SUPPLIES TO MEMBER FAMILIES

Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the Vacaville Neighborhood Boys & Girls Club has to limit the number of kids who can participate on its premises at a given time. For those club members who are unable to attend, staff have provided a way for those kids to have a similar club experience.

Like so much else right now, they are getting it “to go.”

The Boys & Girls Club is offering “to-go” bags containing everything from school supplies to snacks to toys for parents to bring back home to their kids. Christina Allen, the site supervisor over at the club’s Trower Center, said the goal was to let the kids know they are not forgotten and allow them to have the same level of fun they would if they were actively there.

“A little bit of the club is going home to them,” she said.

Allen said the bags are not centered as much around doing homework, as the schools are already distributing homework packets to them and assigning projects on sites like Zoom and Schoolloop. Instead, the contents largely center around creative play, including coloring books and crayons, notebooks and spiral art kits. Other items include Frisbees, stickers and cereals. Allen said parents set up a time to pick up the bags, and she hands them out for social distancing purposes.

Allen said parents had expressed a need to have the supplies distributed, as many are unable to go to the store and some are furloughed employees.

“A lot of them are not qualifying for the things that are going around that are supposed to be helping,” she said. “Coloring crayons and paper may not seem like a big deal, but to a mom who’s used to having resources and used to being able to go to work and can’t now, that could be the difference as far as the quality of what people are able to accomplish now with their kids right now while they’re home.”

Allen said the bags will be beneficial to kids as well.

“The kids will feel like they’re thought of and cared for, even though they’re not here with us,” she said. “(We’re) extending that club experience into the homes since they can’t be here with us.”
The bags are distributed at the Boys & Girls clubhouse at Willis Jepson Middle School, 580 Elder St., where club members are currently meeting while the Trower Center is undergoing renovations. The “To-Go” bag program is open to club members who would normally be participating in activities. To set up a time to pick up bags, call 999-5034