By Craig Marx, Editor

With the end of the school year rapidly approaching, the Boys & Girls Club of Langlade County is set to host its annual “Day of Champions,” awarding its members for various accomplishments throughout the year in the realms of learning, art, and sports.

The winners of the Club’s champion awards have already been determined and the participating member’s parents contacted. The Club is hoping for a great turnout, as the award presentation is open to the public and the community, to see its young members be honored for their achievements.

The Day of Champions is Friday, May 19th with the presentations beginning at 4 PM.

As the 2016-17 members accept their awards, the day also brings a stark mark of finality to the school year session as the Club will be closed from May 20th to June 5th. As per usual, Club employees take the time during this interim to both perform maintenance on the facility while furthering their mentoring and leadership education. New projects that will be undertaken include the addition of security cameras to the Club and the expansion of its computer center.

Boys & Girls Club staff members also undergo additional training during the time “off,” including supervision training as well as first aid and CPR courses. The Club is welcoming in roughly eight to ten new employees in the coming weeks, the majority of which are summer employees. The new leaders will be a welcome addition to the crew as the ever popular and expanding Sizzlin’ Summer Camp begins immediately following the temporary closure.

The summer camp is seeing peak numbers this year already in terms of enrollment. Approximately 150 kids are signed up as of this week with only the 3rd and 4th grade levels of the camp still available without a waiting list. Last year, for example, an average of 138 children attended the camp everyday in the month of July and numbers are still rising.

This year, the Club is working in tandem with the Unified School District of Antigo summer school program to give members an opportunity to take fun and practical classes or courses, such as model rocket launching, dissection, and hiking in the school forest. The opportunities are open to Club summer camp members currently in grades 3 – 8.

Trips are one of the most exciting portions that the Sizzlin’ Summer Camp has to offer, and this year is packed with chances to both cut loose as well as learn. Excursions this summer include a trip to the DeYoung Family Zoo in Wallace, Mich., the UW-Stevens Point planetarium, Bay Beach Amusement Park in Green Bay, and the Xtreme Air Trampoline Park in Appleton.

In addition to the summer camp, the TORCH Club is also looking to complete it fundraising activities for the season in order to travel to the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. The Torch Club is one of the BGC’s main leadership groups with its members generally being between the ages 11 to 13 years old. With a relative degree of autonomy, the Torch Club is administered by its members through a variety of fundraising and community service projects aimed at not only leading towards a year-end trip but also instilling initiative and responsibility both fiscally and socially.