Kids Club continues finding support, success in Blyth
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
What started as a small, grassroots effort to engage the youth of Blyth has grown into one of the biggest and most dynamic recreation opportunities in the village in recent years with the Blyth Kids Club.
Megan Lee-Gahan and her husband Joe Gahan spearheaded the initiative in earnest earlier this year after Joe worked to organize an impromptu soccer league last year with a great deal of success.
This year, the pair expanded substantially, offering a full slate of activities at the Blyth and District Community Centre throughout the week, with several other monthly or bi-monthly offerings.
On Mondays it’s all about soccer, which remains the club’s most well-attended night. On Tuesday there’s ball hockey, followed by a craft night on Wednesday and roller skating on Thursday, though that night will sometimes be turned into a second craft night, depending on the demand.
The club has since introduced monthly disco nights, which have been well received, and a movie night at Blyth Lions Park that has also shown great promise.
Speaking to The Citizen, Megan said the patronage from the community, be it young people as well as their families, has been tremendous, but the support from the community has been overwhelming, to say the least. Supporters have been coming out of the woodwork, she says, with private citizens, businesses and service groups all stepping up and donating what they can to help keep the club successful.
Recent donations have come from the Blyth Legion and Legion Ladies Auxiliary, the Blyth Lions Club and the Blyth Firefighters’ Association, as well as local businesses and residents who just want to support the group in any way they can. Megan says many of the parents of children who come to the club’s nights have stayed on to volunteer, which has been greatly appreciated, while others have provided monetary donations if they don’t have the time to spare.
Having said that, Megan says they are always looking for volunteers to help lighten the load, whether it be in-person at the events or aiding the social media presence and outreach of the club, helping to further spread the word.
At the club’s weekly soccer night, Megan says there have been upwards of 50 or 60 children taking part on any given week, while the other nights will attract between 10 and 30 people, depending on the night.
As for the first disco night at the community centre, the organizers planned for about 100 children and ended up welcoming nearly 120. The event was ticketed in advance, but due to the increase in demand, organizers welcomed those who wanted to attend and allowed them to pay at the door. With the second one on the horizon, the demand has continued to grow, saying the concept has turned out to be a huge success.
The first movie night, which was technically a trial run for the club with a screening of The Goonies and a number of outdoor activities, was also a success, with about 75 people there. This has led to plans to host more movie nights in the coming months, perhaps with even expansion on the horizon.
Megan said the club is hoping to expand those movie nights into full-scale days of fun for the community. With the Lions Pool open from 1-4 p.m. and then again from 6:30-7:30 p.m., there is a small gap from 7:30 p.m. to when it’s dark enough to screen a movie, so she and Joe have been considering expanding the outdoor offerings with a beer garden and live band, leading into the movie, though none of those plans have yet been finalized.
As for other future plans, Megan says the club has been so successful in recent months, thanks to so many generous donations, that they will be offering all of their weekly programming for free for the month of August. If the support continues, they may be able to expand free-will offerings, but, for right now, it will be limited to August, which Megan says will be great for all members of the community who want to participate, but may view the nominal cost as a barrier to getting involved.
There are also preliminary plans to keep the club active through the winter months, even when the arena will be busy with Blyth Brussels Minor Hockey Association and Blyth Broomball action, perhaps utilizing the auditorium or other spaces to keep kids coming back for more.
She says the enthusiasm and support for the program really harkens back, for her, to her days of growing up in Blyth. Kids were always busy, outside and playing together and, if the community needed something, volunteers rose up and made it happen for the good of the village. She has appreciated seeing that return in a big way.
Reflecting on the last few months and the rapid growth of the club’s popularity, Megan said she really just can’t say anything other than “thank you” to the community for its support and enthusiasm. It has really made the work easier, she said.
Megan comes from an event-planning background, so she’s used to pulling events like these together and she says it’s been a joy to see how happy the children have been at the club’s events.
For more information, to get involved or to attend an event, visit the club’s Facebook page.