It's been steady growth, providing more and more students with a safe place to go after school, at the Boys and Girls Club of Westminster.
Established in 2006, there were just 25 students, ages 6 to 18, participating in the after-school program at its formation. Now, there's almost eight times that initial number, utilizing three floors of the Westminster Community Center's building.
And recently, the club hit a significant marker. It became a chartered organization, making it eligible for more grant funds and able to offer all the same programs as the national Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
"It's an exciting time for us, very exciting," Executive Director Bonnae Meshulam said. "It's been in its infancy, and it's like we're just taking off, which is so exciting."
But first things first: The nonprofit had to qualify to become a chartered organization.
Proof was needed that the club had financial stability, a diverse board of directors, major partnerships within the community, a mentor training program and child safety precautions in place at all times. At least 100 registered student members were needed, and the organization has nearly double that number, averaging about 70 attendees per day, according to Meshulam.
And it took years of growth, pained with financial and space limitations, to receive the nationally chartered distinction on March 15.
Around 2006, a group from the Westminster Community of Shalom began to realize there was a need for an official safe, after-school program for students to go locally, according to Beth Tevis, the Boys and Girls Club of Westminster's Board of Directors' acting chair until Jan. 1.
Rather than reinventing the wheel, they decided to grow an after-school group that they had started inside the Union Street United Methodist Church and turn it into a Boys and Girls Club.
In 2006, they became a satellite underneath the Boys and Girls Club of Harford County and began meeting at the newly constructed Westminster Community Center. That meant the Harford County club was its governing body, and the newly created Westminster club was dependent on it for funds, Tevis said.
Several years ago, they splintered off from the Harford County club and became their own entity, according to Tevis, who at the time became the chair of the Boys and Girls Club of Westminster's Board of Directors. And the organization has experienced ample growth since its inception.
"We don't have the kind of space that a typical Boys and Girls Club has," Tevis said. "That's been a constraint from the beginning, and now that we're growing so well it's been a limiting constraint."
Currently, students can hop on a Carroll County Public Schools bus headed to the Westminster Community Center on 25 Union St., where the Boys and Girls Club of Westminster is housed.
Upon arrival, it's snack and homework "power hour" with mentors there to help. Then, it's time for various other activities, such as sports or learning about healthy habits.
"We just want to make it fun, so it doesn't seem like it's school," Meshulam said, "but their grades are going up. And then they get awards for their grades."
And it's making aesthetic improvements and adding programs.
A basement was recently renovated and a teen center opened this school year with computers, couches and beanbag chairs - a private space without middle and elementary schoolers, Meshulam said.
Two different community service clubs, one for middle schoolers and one for high school students, will be starting within about two weeks. The Boys and Girls Club of Westminster will be adding a robotics program that will likely start up this spring.
These were ideas that the organization had before becoming chartered, but it waited to reach that status before it implemented them, Meshulam said.
Additionally, the nonprofit will now have the ability to apply for grants and to use the official Boys and Girls Clubs of America's marketing materials.
Those students enrolled in the Diplomas to Degrees program, which began last school year to help teenagers graduate and work toward the future, will have a new opportunity since the Westminster club received its charter, according to Meshulam.
Beforehand, the local Toyota Financial Services was providing mentoring manpower. But now that the organization has been charted, the about 20 students in the Diplomas to Degrees program are now eligible for scholarships through a national Toyota Financial Services fund.
"It's very, very exciting," Tevis said. "Because one of the hardest groups to keep in any after school program are high schoolers and because of the [Diplomas to Degrees] funds, there will be the scholarship money, and [there will] also be money to actually run the program itself."
It's partnerships like this that have helped sustain and grow the Boys and Girls Club of Westminster, Tevis said.
There's the Y of Central Maryland that picks up kids during the summertime to swim at its facility.
There's McDaniel College that pays for students to work as mentors at the Boys and Girls Club through the college's work-study program. And the college lets groups in the club utilize its writing lab, gym, pool and other facilities.
Carroll County Public Schools provides transportation from Westminster schools to the Westminster Community Center. And the Westminster Community of Shalom pays the expenses of the building.
And there's Carroll Hospital Center, sometimes providing snacks, wellness activities and hospital tours to the club. And that's because partners see the value in the organization, said Ellen Finnerty Myers, the hospital's vice president of corporate development.
"[It's] just another example of a great organization in our Carroll County community that serves an important purpose: Making sure kids have something productive to do before and after school and keeping them focused on positive aspects of life."
And the Boys and Girls Club of Westminster is going to continue expanding on that mission with future changes, some largely available due to receiving its charter. A new board of directors is set to assume leadership Jan. 1, and increasing the club's financial resources is on the agenda, according to Tevis.
"My personal dream," she said, "would be that [we] would gain more and more financial support from the great Westminster community so that at some point there would be multiple Boys and Girls Clubs throughout Carroll County."
