News Article: Summer of Service
Children learn leadership, social skills through Boys and Girls Club trips
By Amber Aldaco
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Branden Kirby steadily and carefully applied a wide paintbrush over the side of a locker outside the Children’s Discovery Museum of the Golden Crescent, making sure purple paint covered every spot on the locker.
The 11-year-old had never painted a locker or building before this summer, and though the weather Thursday afternoon was hot and muggy, Branden didn’t mind the work.
“It’s actually fun. We get to help people and we learn to be independent,” Branden said.
For the past several weeks, children in the summer camp program at the Boys and Girls Club of Victoria have learned about community service, leadership skills, responsibility, and social skills.
Most of the children are 8 years old through middle school. said Nicki Hagel, the education coordinator.
”We want to be able to instill in the children the kind of qualities (that) make a good leader and to make good choices and have the children asked themselves the question, ‘”What kind of person do l hope to become?” Hagel said.