B&G Club employees take week furlough
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The Boys & Girls Club of Rutland County is closed for a week due to budget problems. Cassandra Hotaling / Rutland Herald |
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By Cristina Kumka Staff Writer - Published: April 15, 2009
The Boys & Girls Club of Rutland County is closed for the week because of budget problems, but an influx of much-needed grants will ensure it will once again open its doors, according to club leaders.
"We're opening a new unit in Brandon in June, and we're doing better than we have ever been," said Executive Director Larry Bayle.
"But we are also a nonprofit in 2009," he said. "Of course, we're affected by the economy and we did this because we didn't want to close a unit or lay a person off."
The news of this week's closure during school vacation and an unpaid furlough for the 11 employees was underscored Tuesday when the club opened its doors to U.S Sen. Bernard Sanders, who publicized a $140,000 federal grant for teen outreach.
"This is not an accident that the money is here," Sanders said among a crowd of less than 20.
"You (club leaders) are doing the right thing, he said. The truth is, not every kid we want in this building is going to be in this building … we have to walk out and get them."
The appropriation from Sanders is expected to land at the club in January and will likely be used to renew the salary of the club's teen outreach coordinator, Brooke Nuckles, and hire another employee to work in the Merchants Row teen center, according to Bayle and Dom Serino, president of the club's Board of Directors.
The goal of the coordinator is to spend about 10 more hours out in the community, reaching out to more kids on the street — those who contribute to the more than 3 percent dropout rate in Rutland or those who have fallen through the cracks, Bayle said.
"You never know who you aren't reaching," he said.
Club leaders said the $140,000 from Sanders, another potential $200,000 the club will receive from the federal stimulus plan, and a $78,000 substance abuse grant for each of the next five years, couldn't have come at a better time.
Within the next 30 days, the club is expected to receive anywhere between $10,000 to $15,000 up front of the stimulus money, according to Jack Glazebrook, director of the Boys & Girls Club of America's Office of Government Relations based in Washington, D.C.
"Donors are reducing what they can give and corporate donations are down," Glazebrook said. "This money is to maintain staffing levels."
The Rutland County club isn't the only one taking measures to combat layoffs, according to Glazebrook.
All six Vermont Boys & Girls clubs submitted requests for stimulus funding to avoid reducing staff, he said.
The Rutland County organization was the only club to take a furlough after staff members decided they wanted to maintain all jobs, according to Glazebrook.
News of the club's closure this week didn't sit well with parent Elizabeth Bissonnette, but the additional funding to keep it open did.
"It's a nightmare," Bissonnette said of the club being locked for a week. "It's school vacation and they (Rutland kids) have nothing to do."
Bissonnette, the mother of two teenage daughters who attend the club regularly, said she knows first-hand what keeping the club open would mean to area families.
"I know kids that don't eat on vacation and (parents) were expecting their kids to come here," she said. "This is the only place you know your kids are gonna be safe."
cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com.
This article was edited April 15, 2009, to correct Sen. Sanders' title.
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