The recently-hired Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club in Manitowoc is a county native and a graduate of Reedsville High School.
During an appearance this week on WOMT’s Be My Guest program, Jody Kasten spoke about the origin of the national organization.
“There were three women in Hartford, Connecticut who saw these boys running the streets with no one to care for them and felt we could do better,” she said. “They actually opened their homes to those boys and started a movement that spread across the nation.”
Fast forward to 1990 when the club started accepting girls as well.
Here in Manitowoc, a dedicated group of concerned citizens began raising funds to locate a club in the city.
But, Kasten explains they had to become affiliated with an existing Boys and Girls Club.
“What’s really the advantage of that is it helps us to be really good stewards of the money that’s donated to the Boys & Girls Club because we are an affiliate of the Fox Valley club,” she explained. “As an existing club they had all the infrastructure. We don’t have to hire an H-R person or hire bookkeeping. We outsource that to them.”
Their mission is “to enable all young people, especially those who need us most to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.”
Jody Kasten said the local organization currently has approximately 150 members ranging in age from 6 to 12.
Their club is located at 3651 Dewey Street, in the same building as the Division of Motor Vehicles.
