MARYSVILLE – The Marysville Boys and Girls Club is working on its image.
It may not have a fancy auction like the one at Tulalip, or be involved in an expansion like the one in Arlington, but it fills a void in Marysville. Director Christina Trader wants the community to know about that.
“We’ve made big improvements to the image,” she said at an Open House last week. “Some people didn’t know we were here.”
They have cleaned up the place and done some painting to make it more “welcoming and open, to freshen it up,” she said. Lowe’s has built and donated a number of things to help with community service projects.
For just $30 a year, kids have access to a full-sized gym for things like basketball and volleyball, computer lab, teen room, kids game room and more.
“This community needs a place for kids to be so they’re not out on the streets,” Trader said.
Scholarships are available. “I don’t like to turn kids away,” she added.
Trader said when she started there in 2012, 30 kids belonged to the club. Now there are 95. She added there were just three athletic teams in the fall, and there are 27 now. The club offers sports such as flag football, soccer and volleyball that the city does not offer. Volunteer coaches are needed.
“We’ve built it up through word of mouth,” Trader said. “We’ve built quality programs kids want to come back to.”
Program director Kristi Viereck said she enjoys working there.
“I like working with kids and being a role model,” she said. “They see us sometimes more than their parents.”
Trader said the Marysville School District has helped grow the club by allowing fliers back in the schools to advertise club programs.
The district also helps by having a bus stop at the club for Liberty Elementary School students. Trader said she’d love for more buses to come there so they could help even more students.
The club is financed by federal grants and fund-raising efforts. It provides after-school care, where staff and volunteers help students with homework. Trader is a certified teacher.
“Education is number one,” she said. “We help lay the foundation for them.”
Trader graduated from Western Washington University in Bellingham with a master’s degree in education. But she already was working with the Boys and Girls Club so she decided to teach there, rather than at a school district.
“I worked my way up the food chain,” she said of the club. “This is where I’m needed. This is where my heart and soul is.”
Teaching life skills is one of her favorite parts of the job.
“I’m not their parent, but I can guide them,” she said, adding kids are taught to clean up after themselves and more. “This is their club, and they need to respect the building, the staff and each other.”
