Boys & Girls Club staff win regional awards for leadership

Dec. 23, 2021 | Peter Currier
peter@thewestfieldnewsgroup.com

Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield Director Kellie Brown, left, holds her “Heart of the Region” Award, alongside Program and Teen Director Ashley Miehm with her “Outstanding Program Staff Member” award.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo

WESTFIELD – Greater Westfield Boys & Girls Club Director Kellie Brown and Program and Teen Director Ashley Miehm were presented with two of the organization’s top awards this year, in recognition of their service at the club, especially through the pandemic.

Brown was given the “Heart of the Region” award for the Boys & Girls Club’s 11-state northeast region, and Miehm was given the “Outstanding Program Staff Member” award for the region. Not only did they find out that they had won their respective awards at the same time from CEO Bill Parks, but they were each surprised to learn that they had nominated each other.

Brown said that she nominated Miehm because she is “an outstanding youth professional.”

“She does so much within the organization and with our teen population,” said Brown of Miehm. “She is part of our state Youth of the Year Committee, she developed and wrote a national program for the Boys & Girls Club for LGBTQ youth. There is nothing she doesn’t do for the organization.”

Asked about the Heart of the Region award she herself won, Brown said that it is “the culmination of what we do as Boys & Girls Club professionals.”

“To be nominated from not only my peers but to be selected by all clubs in the northeast region, I can’t put it into words,” said Brown, who has been with the organization for 22 years. “It was just so humbling to be able to know you were recognized for the work you did.”

Miehm said that she had only ever received one award before in her life, and was shocked to learn that she had been declared the winner for Outstanding Program Staff Member.

“It was an awesome feeling,” said Miehm.

She said she nominated Brown because Brown is the hardest-working person she knows. She said Brown was instrumental in pulling the Westfield Boys & Girls Club through the pandemic.

“We felt she needed to be recognized for that and everything she has done for the club since she has been here,” said Miehm.

Westfield Boys & Girls Club Finance Director Lerryn Godden said that the winners of each award are selected by a panel of Boys & Girls Club of America professionals and past recipients of the awards. The winners of each regional award are announced at the Boys & Girls Club National Conference.

The Greater Westfield Boys & Girls Club currently has 290 members, a dramatic drop from its pre-pandemic total of 1,600 children, with a daily attendance of about 350 kids. Godden said that the club, which is the fourth largest in Massachusetts, operated as a distance learning center throughout the pandemic, giving 160 kids a place to do their remote schoolwork during the day.

It had to close its doors to normal operations on March 13, 2020, and did not return to normal operations for several months – though it did offer several emergency programs.

“Within four days, we had opened a contact-free, emergency grab-and-go meal site, providing free meals for families in need. By the end of the following week, we opened four more,” said Godden.

By August 2021, the club had served over a quarter million meals to local families facing food insecurity during the pandemic.

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