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The Boys & Girls Clubs of Lee County had a $50,000 grant surprise recently, complete with Kona Ice and pizza as part of the celebration.

“It was so much fun,” Bank of America Southwest Florida President Gerri Moll said of the surprise Neighborhood Champions program grant donation. “We did it at a time of day where the kids were all there for the after school program. We had a Koni Ice truck, pizza delivery and all of that was a huge hit with the kids. I was shocked that everyone did such a good job of keeping it a secret.”

Boys & Girls Clubs of Lee County CEO Denise Gergley said the grant donation was an honor.

“I’m extremely humbled by being selected for the Neighborhood Champion,” she said, adding that she is excited for the organization, as it will allow them to grow and expand. “It’s invaluable to our growth strategy.”

The surprise check donation was held at the Lehigh Acres Club of the Boys & Girls Club of Lee County, 1262 Wings Way.

The Neighborhood Champions program was introduced by Bank of America in 2019 in Southwest Florida, as well as more than 40 other communities it serves, to support nonprofit leaders role in advancing economic mobility.

“We know that we will be more successful in the communities that we serve are more successful,” Moll said.

The Neighborhood Champions program is an invitation process, which this year had a really strong applicant pool across a variety of sectors from children, to water related issues and health and human services.

“We had a selection committee that was made up of community leaders and Bank of America leadership team,” she said. “We reviewed all the applications very thoroughly, had a discussion and voted. Everyone felt really confident that the Boys & Girls Club was the right Neighborhood Champion. They are doing so much to help these young people meet their full potential and this grant will help them reach even more students. They have a waiting list almost all the time. This grant will allow them to take a lot of the kids off the waiting list and serve so many students. When you see how great the need is in this community and you hear that there are deserving students that would like to participate and can’t get in, it feels great to provide support to expand their services and serve more young people.”

With more than 95,000 students in the School District of Lee County, Gergley said they want to make sure they continue to expand, not only with a physical expansion in order to serve more kids, but also with program expansion to provide more unique opportunities for youth. The clubs serve around 500 youth.

“We want to be able to offer our kids even more and get the word out about the great programs that we do have,” Gergley said, as youth are better off spending time at the club than going home to an empty home because they can build relationships with both their peers and mentors. “It’s a safe place to go after school.”

This past summer, the Boys & Girls Club entered into a partnership with the School District of Lee County to provide programs at two of its schools, Varsity Lakes Middle School and James Stephens Elementary School. There are a total of four existing locations of the club — North Fort Myers, Fort Myers, Bonita Springs and Lehigh Acres, as well as the two school locations.

Gergley said they are working with the school district to add a summer program in Cape Coral this year. She said the Cape is another area that is really growing with young families.

The Boys & Girls Club focuses on four core areas — education, art, health and wellness, sports and recreation and service and leadership.

For education, the club works with the boys and girls on STEM projects, homework help and reading activities. Gergley said with homework help it provides an opportunity for the students do their homework when they get to the club, so when they go home they can enjoy time with their family. She said they are in the process of expanding their tutoring program to help with the learning loss that has occurred because of COVID.

The arts pillar touches upon painting, creating artwork, photography and dance classes to expose the students to various types of art. The health and wellness program partnered with Lee Health to provide such topics as nutrition classes, prevention and saying no to drugs and alcohol.

Sports and recreation keeps the boys and girls moving with a slew of outside activities, such as basketball training with local high school coaches and karate classes. The last pillar, service and leadership has the students doing service projects, such as volunteering at the Harry Chapin Food Bank. 

Gergley said it is important to focus on the whole child.

“Our kids are amazing. Being able to give them the opportunities and experiences and watch them grow up is really rewarding,” she said.

The $50,000 donation will help them ramp up technology centers at their clubs to offer such things as podcasts, as well as bring in teachers to provide instruction about programming, editing and media creation, Gergley said.

In addition, the club wants to continue to expand their health and wellness program through offering such classes as culinary to teach kids how to cook.

Career and college preparation programs is another area the club wants to include.

“We want to make sure we are putting programs in place for career and college preparation,” Gergley said, so kids are exposed to all different kinds of careers. “We want to be a resource for them.”

The donation also will help with the club’s conversation of finding a new location, as they want to explore opportunities to have a bigger footprint in Fort Myers.

Gergley said they are so thankful for the generous partners and community support they receive, as the club cannot do it alone. She said anyone who wants to get involved in the Boys & Girls Club are encouraged to visit bgclee.org.