The Westside community has been invited to attend an open house at the new Hawkins Family Westside Boys and Girls Club, connected to Westbrook Elementary School on Thursday, Dec. 5 from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Those who attend will be able to tour the club’s state-of-the-art Innovation Center and meet Westside Superintendent Mike Lucas.  Lucas said that he was excited about what the new Boys and Girls Club offers for Westside students. 

“In education, you are always trying to find ways to expand the school day and the school year and so the amazing Hawkins Family Boys and Girls Club over at Westbrook will do just that,” Lucas said. “It has amazing speakers in the facility to include a drone obstacle course, it has a culinary lab…[It’s] going to provide an awful lot of opportunities for kids after the regular school day, over the summer and the regular school year to experience enriching, structured opportunities that they might not get to experience otherwise.” 

Westside High School Principal Jay Opperman said that he hopes there will be a number of new Westside families attracted to the opportunity.

“The new Boys and Girls Club hopefully will provide just better spaces for activities the students do, and I know it supports with homework,” Opperman said.“[From] my end, the hope is to attract more students to join the Boys and Girls Club. We have a good partnership with [them], with our facility…So I would hope for not only great service to our existing students, but that it would also attract and grow the number of students who are accessing that great community resource.” 

 Lucas said that the new building allows for more students to participate in the activities hosted there.

“From what I heard, [the old Boys and Girls Club facility’s] capacity was 160 or 180 or so, and now with this new facility, they can easily accommodate 300 students a day,” Lucas said.

Lucas said he is grateful for the opportunities the facility and organization provides for Westside students and families.

“We appreciate the Hawkins family for their financial support of the facility, we appreciate the long-standing relationship Westside Community Schools has with the Boys and Girls Club, and I would encourage any high school student that hasn’t been over there to go check it out as a volunteer or a participant; it’s really a special place,” Lucas said.