Boys & Girls Club getting active start

KINGSTON — After only one week of activities, there is already a strong response to the beginning of the first full year of the North Kitsap Boys & Girls Club.

With a variety of programs available and the energy of new director Rose Norberg, it shouldn’t be surprising.

The club, which started last winter, has brought in enough money through fund-raisers, donations and grants to keep its doors open this year to the seventh, eighth and ninth graders at Kingston Junior High School.

Norberg has the club’s fall activities operating in full swing, complete with instructors:

• Monday — Arts, drama and yoga

• Tuesday — Diners club and computer club

• Wednesday — Guitar class and newspaper group

• Thursday — Native horsemanship and newspaper group

Since the club reopened for the school year on Sept. 27, groups are already working toward big projects. The drama club is organizing a dinner/theatre evening that is expected to take place in January and the newspaper group is publishing a school paper called “The K-Town Spirit.” School officials and residents, including KJH principal Ed Serra, KJH assistant principal Bill Breakey and North Kitsap Fire & Rescue spokeswoman Michele Laboda, are volunteering their time on Tuesday afternoons to help with the cooking classes as well.

“Everyone is really bending over backwards to see to it (that) the programs grow,” Norberg said. “I want the community to feel they are not putting their money into a black hole.”

One of Norberg’s primary goals for the year is to expose the kids to activities outside of the school’s perimeters by attaining a used Kitsap Transit van for field trips to tennis courts, golf courses, the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Aquarium and the beach.

“The whole idea is exposure,” she said.

Norberg is also seeking more volunteers who would be interested in spending an afternoon working with the kids on a new hobby or project.

“It’s so good for the kids to see the adults rally around,” she said.

To help keep the club open and growing, the Greater Kingston Kiwanis and North Kitsap/Kingston Rotary Club will be holding a rummage sale and silent auction from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 9 at Kingston Junior High School.

“I think it’s something we’ve wanted to do together,” said Kiwanis member and co-organizer of the sale Lori Hansen. “With everyone’s efforts, it just makes it more of a success for the kids.”

Hansen said she is looking forward to making it an annual event for the community, sort of like a mini-version of the annual Bainbridge Island Rotary Auction and Rummage Sale.

Donations are still being accepted until 3 p.m. Friday, however, computers, mattresses, building materials, tires or large appliances will not be accepted, Hansen said.

Some of the more unique items that will be available during the auction include lead crystal candle holders, a WebTV, beauty services and gift certificates to restaurants and retail stores.

“It’s really coming together,” Hansen said. “I’ve been really pleased with how generous the community has been.”

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