The Boys & Girls Club of Western Benton County recently received two grants from Cox Communications to fund a computer lab for students.
The club, located at 655 Heritage Court, received an $18,250 grant from the James M. Cox Foundation and a supplemental $7,000 grant from the local Cox office for a total of around $25,000, according to Whitney Yoder, public affairs manager for the local Cox office.
On Oct. 3, the Boys & Girls Club held a grand opening of the Cox Innovation Lab, which includes 12 laptops, two podcasting studio bundles, one green screen and two cameras.
The new lab will give club members a chance to learn valuable skills that are commonplace in today's job market, according to Chris Shimer, the chief professional officer of the club.
"It's going to provide children the opportunity to get hands-on experience with the technology that they really did not have the opportunity to do before the club," he said.
The club received the Cox Foundation grant in mid-June according to Decinda Shimer, the director of development for the club.
Chris Shimer said the biggest problem the club faced was where to put the lab.
"Originally when we looked at this whole item, the Cox Innovation lab was to have a physical space," Chris Shimer said. "We actually made a counter proposal because we're really at capacity of the number of kids that we have in our building. One of the things that we looked at was to make it a mobile lab."
That changed when Yoder approached Shimer and said she could supplement the Cox Foundation grant with a local grant of $7,000. Shimer spoke to staff and they agreed to use the conference room to house the new computer lab.
Chris Shimer said that part of the grant money helped modify the room so it could be used by students. The changes included a new durable floor surface, new tables and chairs and a Smart Board. The total for all of the equipment was around $20,000, Shimer said.
So far the new lab has been a success for the club, according to Chris Shimer.
One of the things the club had to consider when planning for the lab was internet safety. According to Chris Shimer, there are certain sites that cannot be accessed through the Boys & Girls Club Wi-Fi system. Another safety feature is to place a specific program onto the computers that each member uses. For example, if a club member says that he is going to work on coding, then a coding program is placed on the computer that the member is using.
Chris Shimer said this prevents kids from getting on and just surfing the web. During the summer the members were all given internet safety training.
"We ran all of our summer members through Internet Safety," Chris Shimer said. "It was a whole curriculum of activities and they could earn badges when they completed a section. All of our members went through it."
According to Yoder, the Cox Foundation Grant for the lab is part of a national grant given to Boys and Girls Clubs across the country.
Cox Communications is no stranger to helping those who are less fortunate. According to Yoder, Cox also offers a program called Connect to Compete which allows any family that has a student in K-12 grades and is on public assistance to receive internet service for $9.95 a month.
Some of the kids created a one minute 'Rockumentary' where the members interviewed Elviana Reynoso, another club member who sings and plays the guitar. With the help of Clint Thurman, who oversees the Cox lab, the kids were able to splice together the interview with footage of a performance that Reynoso gave in San Antonio according to Chris Shimer.
General News on 10/23/2019