Impact Report 2021

PARTNERSHIP and Program Highlights

BGCSWVA AWARDS THE FIRST JIM BARKER EDUCATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP

Mike and Danielle Wise, founders of the Jim Barker Scholarship Fund, wanted to provide Boys & Girls Club youth with hope and a plan for their future after high school. Through their generous donation, Mike and Danielle set an example for our community, establishing an endowed scholarship fund that would pay for post-high school educational needs for Boys & Girls Clubs of SWVA alumni in perpetuity. The Jim Barker Scholarship Fund is named after Jim Barker, CFO at Delta Dental of VA, BGCSWVA Board member, and Boys & Girls Club alumnus from the Bristol, VA Club. After losing his father at an early age, Jim credits Boys & Girls Club with “protecting his mother’s investment” in him while she was working to provide for their family.

CYCLING PROGRAM

Studies have shown the physical and cognitive benefits that two wheels can bring: increased cardiovascular fitness, stronger bones and muscles, better focus, and greater self-confidence. But lack of access, both to safe paths and to bikes themselves, often prevents kids from reaping those benefits. As CEO of BGCSWVA, Michelle Davis has seen the power of cycling first-hand. One Club member became such a skilled rider that he started going to competitions around the state. When he struggled with virtual schooling during the pandemic, his father made biking an incentive to get him to buckle down on his schoolwork. Now he’s getting As and Bs. In 2018, groups in our region such as Blue Ridge Off-Road Cyclists and the Roanoke Outside Foundation (ROF) hosted a successful crowdfunding campaign to build a beginner loop trail in Morningside Park, next door to the Boys & Girls Club’s 9th Street location. The 1.25-mile trail filled a gap in Roanoke’s biking opportunities. The Virginia Outdoors Foundation is helping with a recent $25,000 Get Outdoors grant to ROF for Phase 2 of the Morningside project, which includes the design and construction of additional trails with more challenging elements, where new riders can grow their skills. In 2021, the Carlo and Michol Schejola Foundation awarded BGCSWVA a generous $25,000 grant to purchase new mountain bikes for Club member use, in addition to a bike-storage facility, as part of the Pedal Up Mountain Biking Program. Participants who develop higher skills can win scholarships to join Roanoke’s Star City Cycling Club, a youth cycling organization.

Boys & Girls Club youth can use these funds for 4-year college tuition, 2-year associates degrees, skills-based certificates, and other career-related educational needs after high school. The JBSF Committee has a goal of raising $1,000,000 in 10 years, which would provide over $39,000 in scholarship awards annually in perpetuity. In its first year, over $120,000 was raised. In May of 2021, the first Jim Barker Educational Scholarship was awarded to Jack Graves, an Eastern Montgomery High School ’21 graduate who is finishing his freshman year at William and Mary.

To learn more about the Jim Barker Scholarship Fund, please visit www.bgcswva.org/barker .

InDecember, Fisher Financial Services, Inc. andMountainView Real Estate partnered on a successful Bikes4Kids Campaign, raising over $16,000 from generous community members to purchase bikes for Club kids who did not have a bike of their own. Now, Club members can grow their love of cycling and develop this lifelong skill both at the Club and at home.