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GARDINER — The Boys & Girls Club of Kennebec Valley Keystone Club volunteered more than 1,200 hours in 2017, the club announced.
Projects included The Next Chapter project, which club members designed after their work with Healthy Communities, where they learned that 70 percent of the group had or has an incarcerated parent.
The group discussed the feelings that accompany having a parent incarcerated and developed The Next Chapter Program because of it.
The project works with inmates at the Kennebec County Correctional Facility who have visitation time with small children. Keystone Club members hoped to make visitation times more comfortable and create stronger bonds between parents and children by allowing parents to have books that they can write in, read to their child and that the child can then take home with them. Members of the club were recognized by the sheriff for their work on Feb. 22, and they also received a $500 grant from Disney to buy the books.
The club also prepared meals on Fridays for kids to bring home over the weekend — the Club Grub project. Members got a $650 grant from Sodexo to support the effort.
Other projects included Dancing with the Staff, Boys & Girls Club Haunted House, and volunteering with Ronald McDonald House, Prebble Street Homeless Shelter, Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter, Maine General Alzheimer Care Center, Healthy Communities of the Capital Area, Boys & Girls Club Open House, The Shaw House Homeless Shelter, Maine Greyhound Placement Center, Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital and Pet Haven Lane.
The club aims to have at least one service project a month, and some already set up for 2018 include Be the Match Donor Drive, Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals, The Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland, Lobster Bowl Classic Golf Tournament (to support the Shriner’s Hospital), Maine Department of Marine Resources and Honor Flight Maine Welcome Home Crew,
