Kelly Smith stands in front of the new Lehigh Boys and Girls Club on Joel Blvd. She is director of the summer camp session that ends in a few weeks just before school begins. Photo by Mel Toadvine

Things are off to a good start for the Lehigh Acres Boys & Girls Club that has opened in the community. Director Kelly Smith, who lives in Lehigh, said the organization opened the center a month ago today with a summer camp that stretches to the Friday before the Aug. 8 reopening of classes in Lee County.

Smith said the Boys & Girls Club is an extension of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Lee County. The club is located in the Faith Plaza on Joel Blvd., at the site of the former Rosie’s Kitchen restaurant, where they are occupying several other former offices that were also available.

“There has always been a need here in Lehigh for a Boys & Girls Club so the administration in Fort Myers decided to open up the facility and we have been very successful in the four weeks here as we stated off with a summer camp for between 50 and 60 kids,” she said. There are around four such Boys & Girls’ Club s in Lee County, but this is a first for Lehigh.

The organization is financed through donations from area businesses and service clubs such as the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs of Lehigh and the children enrolled in the seven-week summer camp are between the ages of 6 to 16.

There is a $10 membership fee for each child to join the club and parents paid $160 for the camp.

Kelly Smith

“We saw this as great opportunity for families to enroll their children for the short summer this year as the youngsters would be involved in all sorts of activities. Most parents have said they didn’t want to leave their children home because of their age or for the older ones who would do very little but watch TV and play video games all day,” she said.

“Here we have several activities from computers to playing basketball, from games to participating in skits. The kids really have loved doing the short plays and we did our second one last Friday, Smith said.

She said the county hasn’t yet decided if it will continue to lease the same space in the fall.

“We intend to go into an after school activities program after classes resume in early August. And we may have more youngsters than we can accommodate here,” Kelly said. But she didn’t know of any other location having yet been chosen although offers have come from several sites.

During the camp, Smith said the kids have taken a few field trips. The first field trip was to the Sun and Fun Lagoon in Naples and to the King Richard Fun Park, also in Naples. Another one coming up is a “Pirate Fes” where they will be a treasure hunt and other activities.

Andy O’Connor

Helping Smith to operate the Boys and Girls Club in Lehigh is her assistant director, Andy O’Connor of Fort Myers. Counselors include Shontae Russ of Lehigh, Claunise Jean-Louis of Lehigh, Brittany Brown of Fort Myers, and Clinton Bartley of Lehigh.

“They all do a great job with the kids. They enjoy being with them and leading them in many of our activities,” Smith said.

Parents drop their children off at the former entrance to Rosie’s Kitchen, the site with the long awning and picks them up in the afternoons. Smith explained that the site is secured at all time and nobody can get into the building without having to knock on the door. However, we are able to get out quickly if there was an emergency, she said.

When the club goes to an afternoon setting, the hours will be from 2 to 6 p.m.

“Some schools close at 1:30 p.m.,” Smith, who is a substitute teacher, said. She is called on mostly for teaching at Lehigh Elementary School, the place she calls her “home school,” but can be assigned at any school if needed.

Exterior of the site now occupied by the new Boys and Girls Club of Lehigh Acres on Joel Blvd. in the Faith Plaza.

Smith said the children over the past session have received free lunchtime meals and a snack in the afternoon and are a part of the county-wide schools program that provides free lunches to children in the schools during the summer. Food is prepared at Veterans Park Academy of the Arts and delivered to different schools in Lehigh.

The paid staffers plan to continue on when the organization becomes an afternoon session, she said.

“Instead of going home and being alone, we think a good choice is to enroll their children in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Lehigh,” Smith said. “We are planning many beneficial activities and it will also be a place they can even do their homework.“

During these last few weeks, Smith noted that on hot days, the children are kept inside, due to extreme heat.

“We watch the heat index and when it is just too hot for outside activities, we spend our time inside where it is much more comfortable with air conditioning.

Some of the children are shown during an activities section as the Lehigh Boys and Girls Club in Lehigh. More than 50 youngsters signed up for the summer camp session during the inaugural opening of the club in Lehigh.

Saundra Saldana of Lehigh, whose son, Zaire, 6, is enrolled in the summer program, can’t praise the Boys and Girls Club enough.

“It’s fantastic. For all they do for them, it is well worth the money to enroll the children here,” she said while picking her son up last week.

Smith said she and her staff always work on accentuating the positive attitudes of the children during activities. The kids are just great this summer,” she said.

For those parents who are interested in enrolling their children in the Boys and Girls Club of Lehigh after school program, they may call Smith at 239-989-2428 for details on how to join.

The director of operations is Shannon Lane, who works out of the administrative offices on Concourse Drive in Fort Myers.

Smith said Lane is very interesting in seeing the Lehigh Boys and Girls succeed.

“It’s really a good deal when you consider that the dues are only $10 a year for a child,” Smith said.

“And the kids enjoy themselves and we offer some very constructive activities for them.“

“There had been a lot of calls to open a Boys and Girls Club in Lehigh and now it is a reality and it’s going great,” Smith said.