Boys & Girls Club to offer programs at VBT, BHS

At the March 8 special afternoon presentation at the Belleville High School Library those present were told of all the funds the Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan has received in grants and the many things it will do in partnership with the Van Buren Public Schools and Van Buren Township.
The club said it now has a $20 million budget.
Belleville High School Principal Nicole Crockett led the meeting in her school library and said when she was growing up in Detroit, Boys and Girls Club meant a safe place to go “where they have to feed us.”
“They have evolved to supporting the whole child,” she said.
State Senator Darrin Camilleri said he is chair of the education committee in the senate and a former teacher. He seeks the “whole development of our kids.” He said after the corona virus there was a loss of connection.
He said he secured $10 million for the Girls and Boys Club of Southeastern Michigan from the state budget.
Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara said the township “threw in some ARPA dollars.” He said the program has quality and sheer energy and will include sports and after-school programs.
Alicia Bell, chairperson of the Wayne County Commission, said she is on the board of the Boys and Girls Club and the county commission granted $500,000 to the Boys and Girls Club.
Connor Sampson, a 2016 graduate of Belleville High School who was a quarterback in the NFL, is the athletic director for Boys and Girls Club. He said as a kid he used to sneak into BHS football games by walking through the woods with his friends from his home in Harbour Pointe subdivision.
Sean Wilson, president and CEO of Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan, said he took over the position in 2018. He said the club was on a downward spiral and membership was going down. He said they needed to reimagine the organization.
He said they went from 11 sites and now are in four with Van Buren Township/Belleville being the fifth site.
Wilson said there now are 7,000 regular members and an operating budget of $20 million.
He thanked John Juriga of Belleville, who brought the Boys and Girls Club to Belleville in 2008 where it operated until the corona virus in 2020 when it closed. The crowd applauded Juriga’s work.
BHS football quarterback Bryce Underwood said via video that he trains three to four times a week in the Boys and Girls Club facility in the 3C Sports program in Detroit.
He said at the moment he was at Louisiana State University, where he has signed to play football, and couldn’t be present. Principal Crockett said he would not be marked absent from his BHS classes.
Underwood earned a $1,000 award for being named Gatorade 2024 Quarterback of the Year and he donated that to BHS and the club gave another $3,000 so they have a total of $4,000 for the first-ever Underwood Quarterback Camp in Belleville this year.
After all the speeches were done, the undefeated 12 and under club’s sports team was brought forward for a picture. The team practices at McBride Middle School and plays its games at the club’s Tireman Avenue location in Detroit.
At Friday’s event, Boys and Girls Club groups from other locations showed off their projects around the library, which included the designing and sewing of unique clothing.
Wilson said the club plans to partner with the township and the school and eventually build its own building in this area. The agreement signed with Van Buren Township at its March 5 meeting for a sports program at the new community center was through March 2026, when it could be renegotiated.
At the Feb. 20 meeting of the township board of trustees, Director of Community Services Elizabeth Renaud said the community center would be opening in April. At last Friday’s event she said it would open in June.