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Date: 11/11/2020
WEST SPRINGFIELD – To keep their doors open for the foreseeable future, the West Springfield Boys & Girls Club has set up a “Change a Child’s Future Campaign” page for the remainder of 2020.
The donation page, which you can find by visiting wsbgclub.org/donate2/, states that the campaign “supports families who are faced with overwhelming struggles, kids at-risk, and the local community.”
Much like the majority of events held at the club, this particular campaign will benefit the “social-emotional health, mental and physical well-being” of the community’s youth, 2.9 to 18 years of age.
Sarah Calabrese, the club’s resource development director, told Reminder Publishing that a campaign such as this one would greatly benefit the funding for all aspects of operation within the club.
“Now that we have re-opened [after a closure due to COVID-19 restrictions], we’ve launched a year-end campaign, and that’s going to help us recoup and recover from the pandemic,” said Calabrese.
Donations from local residents will be valuable to the club in a variety of ways, according to Calabrese. On top of providing financial aid to families who need it, the money will also assist with community outreach efforts and specific programs that benefit children within the community.
On the donation page itself, local residents are allowed to choose from set prices of $25, $50, $100, $500 and $1,000. There is an empty box if people would like to submit their own currency amount too.
“The kids have gone through so much emotionally,” said Calabrese. “That’s one thing the club can give back to them, by keeping the doors open, and letting them see their friends in a safe environment.”
Calabrese explained how a lot of families work on the front lines in health care, so child support in general is something that the club prides itself on offering to those who need it.
“We’re giving the parents peace of mind, so they know that they’re sending their child to a safe atmosphere while they go to work,” said Calabrese.
The website also specifies what each monetary donation would mean for a child who’s part of the club. For example, a $25 donation from someone “provides one child with a new headset for virtual school learning.” A $50 donation “provides one child with registration to a social recreational activity such as [their] Youth Sports Clinic or Art Club.”
Higher donations will help in other ways like, covering the cost for school supplies, or providing the club with new S.T.E.A.M. tools for members to explore their interests in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. More of this information is provided on the aforementioned website.
Also available on the campaign site is a “I Want to Fundraise For This” button. According to Calabrese, this function allows residents to create their own fundraising team for the campaign.
“It makes it so that another individual is able to share our page, and raise money for us, almost like your own team,” said Calabrese. You could launch it, and a bunch of people could donate to you (the individual who made the fundraising page), and the proceeds would go back to the club.”
According to Calabrese, if multiple people start their own fundraising page, there’s a leaderboard that shows which fundraising team is performing the best.
Calabrese also wants to let people know that the club is not just a place for the West Springfield community. “Members do come to our club from all over the lower Pioneer Valley,” she said. “Sometimes parents live in a different town, but they’ll work in West Springfield, so they’ll send their kids here.”
The club has done campaigns such as these in the past, but this one in particular comes at a consequential time for the organization, according to Calabrese. “Now more than ever, we had to launch this … we have to collect donations to keep things going,” she said.
The campaign’s final day is Dec. 31.