Mural designed by Vincent Blake and Club Members. Image by Denise Stephanie Hewitt.
By Claire Jackson, Spelman College guest contributor
The signature vibrant waves of laughter of children reverberated through the gymnasium as Club members trickled in group by group for an assembly. John Strong, executive director of the John H. Harland Boys and Girls Club, commanded their attention with a strong but warm voice by running a sequence of claps for Club members to call and repeat, thus signaling the beginning of assembly.
During assembly, Strong addressed a key aspect of BCGMA’s Character and Leadership priority outcome area: empowering kids and teens to become young leaders and standing up against negative things such as bullying.
“You don’t have to put your hands on someone to be a bully,” Strong told the assembled group of ages 6-18. “When you step in these doors, you should be showing nothing but love.”
Emphasizing this message, in the next part of the assembly, each age group of kids proceeded to stand up one by one and show off their best dance moves, and laughter bounced off the painted walls of the gymnasium, saturated with murals.
Beautifully painted walls are not uncommon at the Harland Club; much of the facility has inspirational and motivational murals that give the rooms that same love that Strong spoke of.
Tatu
m, a 13-tyear-old Club member, says when she first began attending the Harland Club she did not know how to communicate some of the difficult feelings she had inside of her, let alone cope with them herself.
“I didn’t understand how to say how I felt, but then I came here, and my cheer coach told me to write how I was feeling in a journal. So, I did. And now, I have about four or five filled journals, and I love to write in them about anything,” said Tatum, with a wide smile gracing her face.
Within the painted walls of the Harland Club, kids & teens have a safe place to learn, grow, and be loved.
“This is a place for these kids to feel community and love,” Strong said. “If they get anything from being here, I hope they get that sense of community and care. That’s our plan, that’s our intention.”