Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line looking to improve and expand

Despite recent improvements to increase capacity, The Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line has again reached capacity of the number of children they are able to serve, but is looking to make more improvements next year and hope to be able to enroll more members by next school year.

"The whole mission is to inspire and enable all young people - especially those who need us most - to become productive, responsible and caring citizens," Club Director Tim Brurud said. "... We want our kids to be productive members of society to get out there have a plan for when they graduate high school."

The Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line has been operating in the community for the past 17 years and working to continue and extend its mission to more children. The club is also looking to make capital improvements to its STEM - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - program.

"Right now, we are kind of at a place where we really need to think about some things because we've had to cap our membership again," Brurud said.

The Boy & Girls Club held its annual Festival of Trees fundraiser the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the event raised close to $70,000 and the club also received a $75,000 donation from BNSF Railway Foundation, he said.

Brurud said the BNSF donation will be broken up into $25,000 awards over three years.

He said the money given by the BNSF foundation will be used to extend and improve the club's STEM program. The club has a STEM programming instructor who was working three-quarter time, but now is full-time because of the grant. With the instructor working full-time they will be able to do more outreach and offer additional programs at the Boys & Girls Club, as well as the club being able to purchase some new equipment for STEM. He added that the instructor next year will also be working on doing more outreach with the community.

"It's a strong program and we are looking to make it stronger," he said.

The club plans to have more students talking with people at Montana State University-Northern or employees at Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad or other places in the area which relate to STEM to help inspire children to start thinking about careers in STEM fields, Brurud said. 

"It's going to be really cool," he added.

The Boys & Girls Club serves children from 6 to 18, he said, and by doing this outreach the club can get teens interested and excited about careers in STEM fields. He added that even the younger children can benefit from these trips and get excited about doing career exploration.

Whether a student is thinking about attending college, trade school, military service or just going into the workforce, developing a plan for the future is critical, Brurud said, adding that by exposing the children to STEM related careers can help them develop a plan. 

He added that the club is also looking to purchase some new equipment and programs to further its mission with STEM. He said that the club already has some Lego Robotics kits and that the club may be purchasing more kits to build on the program. Children have a lot of fun with the hands on part of STEM, and the club wants to be able to have something for the children that is fun and educational.

They are also looking to expand the computer technology aspect of the club, he said. He added that the club also received a $10,000 grant from the Boys & Girls Club of America to make some technological improvements.

Brurud said the club is hoping to be able to make some capital improvements in the next year, although none of those plans are finalized.

For years, the club has needed to turn children away because it club had more children than they were able to adequately serve, he said. In the past couple of years, the club has worked on some large expansions, adding a multipurpose room and additional space for children, and were able to increase its capacity by 50 children. But in September of this year, the club reached capacity again, with serving more than 230 children in the area, he said.

"We blew past that," he said, adding that the club is serving as many children as it can while still remaining faithful to its mission.

"I want to see that go away," Brurud said. "I want to not have to turn away any kid and be able to provide them a great after school experience."

He added that the club is working on a number of ways the club can be able to raise the cap by next school year. He said that the club has a number of options available, but they will all take a large amount of finances.

He said that the money raised at the Festival of Trees will go toward planning a way to raise the cap, but also will go to the club's endowment fund to assure the club is secure.

"We are very hopeful that, by next school year, that we'll be able to lift the cap and be serving kids, whatever that looks like, hopefully, we will be able to do that by next school year," Brurud said.

"We'd love to serve all the kids, but we just can't right now," he added.

In the past year the club has also made some major improvements as well as introduced a number of new things for children.

One of the improvements the club made was building a bus garage.

Brurud said that the bus garage is working great and has made it easier to transport children. He added that the club is able to bus 12 children a day home from the club to Hillview Apartments, even during the winter months, and is mainly possible because of the bus garage. In the future, after the club is able to raise the cap, they are hoping to create some more bus routes to better serve the children, he said.

Brurud credits the staff members of the club with its success. In the past few years ,the club has had a very strong full-time staff that has been working hard to provide the children at the club with the best experience possible. He added that, thanks to the staff, the club has also become a much safer place for children. 

The club has worked to educate its staff about safety, what to watch for regarding sexual and or physical abuse and how to talk to the children about these issues as well as how to notify the proper authorities if necessary.

Brurud added that his favorite part about the club is that, after 17 years of being in operation, he is starting to see second generation children coming to the club. 

"I know their parents, they were kids here when I started," he said. "They are bringing their kids here. It's great to see and it's fun to see those kids come back as adults and give back to the club."

Many of the former children of the Boys & Girls Club are also donors or help with the Festival of Trees every year, he said, adding that it is a great feeling to see these children grow up and be part of the club in a different way.