Washington Local Schools welcomes its 1st Boys & Girls Club

When Jim Ravas became president and chief executive officer for Boys & Girls Club of Toledo in 2020, one of the first things he knew he had to do was expand the nonprofit to Washington Local Schools, he said.

“It was a priority because this is the second-largest school district in Lucas County,” he said. “To me, it intuitively made sense to say we have to be here.”

He reached out to former Washington Local Schools Superintendent Kadee Anstadt, who had wanted a Boys & Girls Club location within the school system for years but never knew how it would be possible.

“It’s not an easy thing,” Ms. Anstadt said. “There’s just a lot of moving parts to getting funding for a club. The thing that I, that none of us, put together is just how expensive it is to put together a club. There are wages to be paid, there’s space that has to be available, and we don’t have a lot of space here at Washington Local. … You have to [meet] need qualifications from a national standpoint.”

“All of those things had to come together,” she continued. “We just kept chipping at it, like cutting a tree down, and it fell. This is such a great day because this is going to be so good for these kids.”

Four years later, the pair stood proudly in front of Hiawatha Elementary School to introduce Toledo’s newest Boys & Girls Club location in the school at a ribbon-cutting event on Monday.

When classes are over for the day at Hiawatha Elementary, students ages 7 to 12 will have opportunities to get help with homework, participate in team-building activities and conflict resolution exercises, and have access to a hot meal and snacks through the Connecting Kids to Meals.

The club’s newest location is the ninth in Toledo and the fourth shared-space club, which describes a facility where the Boys & Girls Club has designated office and program spaces.

“I think what’s important is that these clubs are located all throughout Toledo in different neighborhoods,” Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said. “The last ribbon-cutting I went to was out in Point Place and now today we’re in West Toledo at Washington Local Schools. It’s not just some neighborhoods or some kids. I think all kids can benefit from the sense of community and support that you’ll find in a Boys & Girls Club.”

Ms. Anstadt said the opening of the new club location led her to think back to when she was a 35-year-old single mother in Cleveland.

She remembered driving 35 minutes to pick her up children, drive them back home, help them with homework, and cooking dinner.

“All of those things, these stressors, will be alleviated here at Hiawatha,” Ms. Anstadt said.