Ken Garff Riverdale, Rocky Mountain Power donate supplies and money to Boys & Girls Clubs of Weber-Davis
Alex Rulz and Yenia Cobain offload donations made by Ken Garff of Riverdale to the Boys & Girls Clubs' family outreach program in Roy on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
Ken Garff Riverdale made a donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs' family outreach program in Roy on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
Joey Burns of Ken Garff Riverdale talks about donations the company made to the Boys & Girls Clubs' family outreach program in Roy on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
Alex Rulz and Yenia Cobain offload donations made by Ken Garff Riverdale to the Boys & Girls Clubs' family outreach program in Roy on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
Ken Garff Riverdale made a donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs' family outreach program in Roy on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
Savannah Cantwell, left, Shelly Smith and Emily Oyler, right, take a selfie in front of the Ken Garff truck after Ken Garff Riverdale made a donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs' family outreach program in Roy on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
Ken Garff Riverdale made a donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs' family outreach program in Roy on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
Ken Garff Riverdale made a donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs' family outreach program in Roy on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
Ken Garff Riverdale made a donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs' family outreach program in Roy on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
Ken Garff Riverdale made a donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs' family outreach program in Roy on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
ROY — The Boys & Girls Clubs of Weber-Davis received some big donations on Tuesday that it says will help one of its newest programs that was created due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting school closures.
The Ken Garff Riverdale auto dealers donated five picnic tables, 200 children’s books and various toys, while Utah-based utility company Rocky Mountain Power also donated $5,000 to the club.
The money and supplies, according to BGCWD executive director James Ebert, will be used to help the organization with its family outreach program.
The program consists of children getting a “grab and go” lunch delivered to their homes, weekly panty pack meals for the family, weekly food donations from the club’s community partners, such as Great Harvest Bread, and a weekly one-hour, at-home visit with staff members.
“These children have been cooped up and quarantined, so to speak, for months and months and months, and their social and emotional circles have been shrunk way down. It’s super important for us to realize that children need social and emotional connection all the time,” Ebert said.
Due health protocols in place as a result of COVID-19, four Boys & Girls Club sites are shut down and two are running at limited capacity, hence Ebert describing the family outreach program as a way to kind of bringing the club to the children.
The two sites that are open to limited capacity are the Roy Hope Center Facility, where the donations were received, and Burch Creek Elementary in South Ogden.
When schools went into soft closure in March, both Weber and Ogden school districts still offered free lunches to students and families.
Not all the kids were able to go pick up food, so the Boys & Girls Club initially started distributing lunches, then Ebert says the club realized there was more the club could do in the realm of social and emotional contact.
A large amount of the club’s normal summer programs have moved online as well in another example of the myriad of societal disruptions caused by the pandemic.
The club normally has around 400 kids in its summer clubs, but it’s going with around 100 right now.
“It’s been a lot of work, but we have to adapt. … There is some need out there. Food scarcity is a big need for these kids,” Ebert said.
Ebert hopes the club can use the $5,000 donation to expand the family outreach program by adding staff, making a more robust literacy and tutoring program, or a combination of both.
Taylor Goff, agency services coordinator/project manager with Ken Garff, said the automotive group donated supplies from Utah businesses as part of a companywide initiative going on through July 23 to help small businesses in the state.
“(We) got the toys from Dilly Dally’s, picnic tables from Lifetime, books from Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City,” Goff said.
