AMHERST — Actively maneuvering his character through the Fortnite Battle Royale video game, John Ekajulo seems to be enjoying the competition — against 99 other players around the world — as he sits on a couch inside the Amherst Boys & Girls Club.
Ekajulo has been coming to the club for about a year.
“It’s really a place you can come to to get things done and to hang out with other kids,” said Ekajulo, a 13-year old from Amherst.
Down the hall, Evan Dossantos, 9, also of Amherst, is logged into a computer, challenging summer staff leader Barinder Saini to a different online video game, just days after he assisted in making a chalk drawing of superhero Spiderman in the parking lot.
“I like that I can come and play video games, because video games are awesome,” Evan said.
The boys are among a handful of Amherst youth who on Wednesday afternoon were visiting the new site for the long-running club, which relocated to 29 Cottage St. earlier this month.
The hope is that the renovated space, a former medical office at the northern edge of downtown, provides a more welcoming and attractive place than being above a downtown bar, said Thomas Crossman, president of the club’s board of directors.
“The old facility got pretty cozy pretty quick,” said Crossman, who spearheaded the project aimed at reviving the club that has been part of the fabric of Amherst for more than 100 years.
While the club emphasizes that the children should just have fun during the summer, the members are also learning life skills, Crossman said.
“Our first goal is to provide a safe space for them,” he said. “Our second goal is to help inspire them and encourage them on certain passions. The key goal is for them to discover themselves.”
Activities during the school year, when the club is open every weekday afternoon from 2:30 to 5:30, include a writing club, a cook-from-scratch program and even a science and engineering workshop, led by members of the National Society of Black Engineers at the University of Massachusetts.
“We try to find what’s going to pique their interests and tap into what really interests them, and mold them into reaching their full potential,” Crossman said.
In fact, the club is explicit in its mission of enabling “all young people, especially those who need support most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens.”
Founded by Amherst College students in 1909, the club serves Amherst-area children age 9 to 18 and runs on a budget of around $80,000.
At the height of its popularity in the 1960s and ’70s, the club would have between 100 and 200 members.
“Our big goal is to get over the 100-member mark,” Crossman aid.
Last year, the club had 52 members, and 22 “drop-ins,” with members paying a $50 annual membership fee. Donors, including many former members and businesses, are able to sponsor memberships, meaning only a handful have to pay the full price.
Crossman said the club had just 900 square feet on the second floor of 39 North Pleasant St., rented from the Knights of Columbus in space above McMurphy’s Uptown Tavern. The new site is 2,100 square feet.
“It’s a nice bump up,” Crossman said.
The site has a games and rec room, with a pool table, foosball and air hockey tables, multi-use room where dinner can be served and arts and crafts projects can be done, a technology room with three computers, and a quiet study room. While there is no gymnasium, a large parking lot next to the building features a basketball hoop.
Having a kitchen may be the most important part of the site.
“There’s a lot of times they’re starving by the time they’re at the club,” Crossman said.
The building is owned by W.D. Cowls. Cinda Jones, president, said it is exciting to have the club come to the site.
“That building is super convenient to the schools and playing fields, has lots of private parking, yet it’s still uptown,” Jones said.
Until 1976, the club was located on Boltwood Walk in a building constructed in the 1920s, a building that featured a gym, a wood shop, a wrestling room and pool tables. But in what became a controversial decision, the town took the property by eminent domain and demolished the building to make way for parking and the Bangs Community Center project.
The club relocated to the Henry Hills mansion on the corner of Main and Gray streets in 1977. But by 2003, that building was in decline, and in 2007 the property was sold, prompting the club to find the downtown site.
This marks just the second year that the club has remained open during the summer, having traditionally had its schedule coincide with the school calendar.
“Summer is a new endeavor for us,” Crossman said.
Danny Kemsley, a group leader for the summer, said her observations are that most of the children want to have fun while there.
“Older students get here and just want to chill out and be with their friends,” Kemsley said.
The summer opening is happening through a partnership with Upward Bound, which brings students from urban areas to more rural locations. This summer, students from Commerce High School in Springfield, who will be attending UMass, are helping to plan activities and will do promotional work for the club.
Crossman said there is continued room for growth, with a survey by a Greenfield Community College student a few years ago indicating that there are at least 400 children in Amherst between grades 1 and 12 who don’t participate in any after-school activities or sports.
The new location should strike a balance between having a place that isn’t intimidating for new and younger members, but also isn’t unappealing for the older children who have been coming for years.
As the club tries to make its presence felt in town, it will hold its fifth annual golf tournament at Hickory Ridge Country Club Aug. 13, one of two major fundraisers, the other being the Annual Feast for the Future Gala, held for the third time last spring. It is also raising awareness through a car wash next month and a community breakfast being planned for October.
The site may also become part of the Arts Night Plus event, the first Thursday of each month, observing that its longtime executive director was the late Stephen Hamilton, a famed artist, some of whose works hang at the Amherst police station.
Crossman said he hopes children will take ownership and feel like they have a say in the Amherst Boys & Girls Club’s future.
“What we’re trying to be is that opportunity for someone who wouldn’t catch a break otherwise,” Crossman said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
