MARTINSBURG–For her final stop Friday in the Eastern Panhandle, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., toured the Martinsburg location of the Boys & Girls Club of the Eastern Panhandle and spent some time with the club’s kids.
Capito was also joined by Martinsburg Police Chief Maury Richards to discuss the Martinsburg Initiative and the department’s partnership with the club.
After recent visits with Stacie Rohn, chief professional officer with the Boys and Girls Club of the Eastern Panhandle, and some of her students in Washington D.C., Capito said it was important to visit the club since she had not been there in a while.
“(They) told me about their coordination and efforts in education, prevention and nutrition,” Capito said. “I think they are known here as a very successful program.”
Capito said she also wanted to speak with the club’s officials about the importance of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative, which the club receives some grant funding from.
Through a strategic focus that targets at-risk children and troubled families, the Martinsburg Initiative works to assess, identify and eliminate the basic causes of drug abuse, according to the city police department’s website.
The initiative aims to tackle addiction early because the drug epidemic that West Virginia faces not only affects adults, but it affects the children of the community as well.
“We just passed a big opioid response bill, and part of what I got in there was an answer to that,” Capito said Friday. “It was to start looking at families, to start looking at the long-term effects of the children, to start looking at bigger efforts in prevention at younger ages and to look at how it is impacting the community as a whole. I think that is where the Martinsburg Initiative has really done a great job–of looking at that and treating the kids with care.”
Amber Glennon, director of operations at the Boys & Girls Club of the Eastern Panhandle, said the partnership with the police has been “absolutely wonderful” for the children.
“Having officers in the club, it makes such a big change,” she said. “Typically when you see a police officer, you think there is something wrong or something happened. With the officers in the club on a regular basis–our parents started out as ‘oh what happened’ and now their kids are coming up and saying ‘so and so came with me to play today,’ ‘he helped with my homework or shot basketball with me.’ “
Glennon said the partnership also shows the kids that the police are really there to help them. She added when an officer comes into the club, everyone of the kids high-five them or hug them as they walk by.
“They get to learn instead of being afraid of an officer. They learn they are really here to help and who they are,” Glennon said. “So not only that, if there is something that happens out there they know the officers. It is easier to go to somebody if you know them as opposed to not.”
Capito said she took away many things from her visit at the club.
“The broad range of ages is really interesting to me,” she said. “You are talking about elementary school all the way up to high school. I think they are very careful about creating programming for the certain segments of the kids that is going to keep them occupied.”
She was also delighted to hear about the partnerships with Shepherd University, Martinsburg High School and other educational institutions to help tutor and mentor the kids.
Capito also noted the challenges of having an older building.
“I think the challenges of the older building are certainly apparent when you come in, but they have done a great job of remodeling and refurbishing,” Capito said.
Glennon said the club serves approximately 200 to 300 kids a day in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties.
She added it is important for Capito to see what they do to connect with the kids.
“They are our future generation and they are our future voters,” Glennon said. “She is an after- school supporter, so just being in the after-school programs when we know she supports them is big. We are able to take that time to thank her for supporting our programs.”