HOLYOKE –   The Greater Holyoke Boys and Girls Club (GHBGC) is continuing their work to provide services and to support families in the community through the coronavirus pandemic.

President and CEO of the Greater Holyoke Boys and Girls Club, Eileen Cavanaugh, said while other facilities closed their doors at the height of the virus in March, the GHBGC remained open. However, instead of continuing to provide an after-school program to children in Western Massachusetts, they began operating as an emergency daycare.

“When the state closed, we were able to apply to be emergency childcare for essential workers. We operated through March, April, May [and] June,” Cavanaugh said. She said while they were happy to be able to serve the community in such a way, they were no longer operating as an emergency daycare. However, they were still serving families who were essential workers.

Now, she joked, they were operating as a “full-day untraditional summer camp program.” Instead of the traditional after-school program run by Boys and Girls Clubs across America, GHBGC is running a full-day school program.

“Typically this is a quiet time of day,” she laughed. She said the staff and club have continued “rolling from one model to another,” now with a focus on keeping kids engaged throughout the online school day.

“We’re making sure the kids who are enrolled in full day [remote learning] have access to remote learning platforms,” she said. Cavanaugh added that “making sure the technical access is available” to students who may need it is very important.

Additionally, she said it was important that the kids stay on track with their learning and families feel supported during this difficult time. “We’re making sure the kids are staying engaged, participating and just making sure we can help support the families,” Cavanaugh said.

She said at this time 70 children were currently enrolled in the program, “with an active wait list.” However, she said new kids were being enrolled in the program often. “We’re working to add new families every day as we can increase capacity,” Cavanaugh said.

More children would be able to participate in the program, she said, “as we’re able to add staff and space.” Cavanaugh explained, “We started slow, [we] wanted to ensure we had the  staff and space.”

The change to a full-day school program has been a shift, not only for children attending the club, but staff as well. Cavanaugh explained that prior to the shift, the majority of those employed by the club were working part-time and were only available during the after-school hours. This has changed with the structure of the program, and now Cavanaugh said employees are working harder and longer hours. Instead of facilitating after school programs, she said they are now acting as “remote learning facilitators.”

Cavanaugh elaborated on their responsibilities and said often staff are “troubleshooting technology [problems], [and] access to Zoom.” They also serve “a lot of facilitation and reminders to stay on task,” while maintaining COVID-19 safety precautions such as “maintaining social distancing, cleaning, disinfecting” and ensuring masks are worn by all.

She also expressed her pride in the children as well. “I give an awful lot of credit to the kids for their flexibility and resilience,” she said.

Despite the school-day program taking up a significant portion of staff resources and time, Cavanaugh emphasized that the traditional Boys and Girls after school program was not being sacrificed. “Kids are in need of enrichment activities now more than ever. We’re paying really a lot of attention to our enrichment component as well,” she said.

Cavanaugh said out of school time was just as important as time spent focusing on studies. She said in the afternoon, following the school day, kids in the program are able to spend time participating in activities such as outdoor recreation, arts and crafts, physical education and nutrition. These enrichment activities, she said, were an “important part of their learning.”

Additionally, she said the enrichment activities have provided good incentives to help children enrolled in the program get through the day. “Afternoon activities are great incentives for the kids, a little more encouragement. It’s been a nice opportunity,” she said.

In addition to teaching the students skills they may not otherwise have an opportunity to learn and providing fun incentives, she said the after school program also gives the children an opportunity to socialize. This she said, even with following CDC guidelines, is equally as important for children. “It gives the kids an opportunity to socialize, which is essential right now,” she said. “This chance for them to come and have in-person conversations with staff and other kids their age and socialize with protocols in place is an advantage.”

Outside of the club, Cavanaugh said they’ve had a “pretty robust” dinner pickup program that has been taking place throughout COVID-19. She said during the month of August, the center served 11,000 meals to the youth of Holyoke. The pickups, she said take place Monday through Friday and include food distribution to homeless shelters and families in need that have been identified through the Holyoke Public School System.

Cavanaugh said the only requirement for those picking up meals was that the child receiving the meal be under the age of 18. The meals are served in brown paper bags and include all the recommended components such as fruit, vegetables, protein, milk and grains.

The meals pickups take place at various places around Holyoke as part of a grab and go pickup.

Meal pickups take place at the following locations:

• Main Club located at 70 Nick Cosmos Way

• Beaudoin Village HBGC Satellite Unit located at 15 Barret Dr.

• Toepfert Apartments HBGC satellite Unit located at 22 No. Summer St.

• Churchill Homes HBGC satellite Unit located at 334 Elm St.

She said the program has also given the club an opportunity to “work with some local vendors.” Such opportunities have included putting apples from a farm in Hadley and milk from a farm in South Hadley into the bags.

Cavanaugh said the club loved to be able to do this type of outreach and serve the community. Those who need more information, want to sign up to be on the waitlist for the full-day school program or simply have questions can go to www.hbcg.org or email Cavanaugh at Ecavanaugh@hbgc.org.