The Tom & Soni Sheehan Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville has been enhancing and enriching kids in Hamilton County for many generations.
Rich Harden is a Noblesville educator who has been teaching for 38 years, with the majority of his career in high schools. The club alumnus credits the Boys & Girls Club and the experience he had in his youth there for inspiring his career in teaching.
He says the Boys & Girls Club “was a gathering place that our community trusted, and the people there took that responsibility very seriously. When I was a kid, it gave me a place to go to meet lots of other kids from other schools and who might have the same interests as me. It started me on a path where I was able to socialize with lots of other kids.”
His favorite memories from the club are just hanging out, playing games and socializing with other kids. “Going to the club was a big deal, as far as creating more of a social life for me that really I still value to this day,” he says. “I still see some of those people to this day, 50 years later. It’s cool I still live in the city I grew up in, and lots of others do as well.”
The Boys & Girls Club was instrumental in preparing Harden for his future career. He was encouraged by the staff to take on more responsibility, by working and leading groups. “I was part of teams that would travel to other clubs for basketball games, quiz bowl-type of events – things like that,” Harden says.
Harden eventually got a job there during his junior and senior years of high school, working with kids, playing games, planning and leading activities, refereeing basketball, and being part of a staff of other high school students and adults. Harden says he “enjoyed being part of a great program that allowed kids a place to hang out and safely participate in so many activities with other kids.” When he started to work at the Boys & Girls Club as a student at Indiana University in Bloomington, he realized that being around kids, especially teenagers, was important to him, so he ended up changing his major to education.
Even though Harden is no longer a part of the Boys & Girls Club organization, he recognizes that they still have a great impact on many kids in the community. “I don’t go there or really acknowledge that to them as much as I could or should, but I pay attention to what’s happening there,” he says. “That it is one of the few places that I designate my charitable donations because I trust their people and their programs.”
Current club kid Brandon, age 14 and a freshman in high school, is much like Harden, and shares the belief that the Boys & Girls Club is a great place for kids. Brandon loves the club because of the great staff, his friends, and the opportunities and memories that he has made. Brandon has been coming to the Noblesville Boys & Girls Club for over three years now, and says he can be himself here. He loves that it is a great place to relax, and that there is so much to do including open gym/basketball and different clubs to participate in. Brandon shares that his favorite memory with Boys & Girls Club was being a part of Torch Club, and getting the opportunity to travel to Great Wolf Lodge and Kings Island with his friends. Brandon also loves being a part of the dance team and dancing for the Boys & Girls Club.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America couldn’t offer this space, or their programs and services, if it wasn’t for donations and support from local communities. If you are interested in having your child participate in the Boys & Girls Club, there is no monthly fee, but a school year membership of $75, and only $10 for teen (13 to 19 years old) memberships.
You do not have to be a Noblesville resident to participate in the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville because they service all of Hamilton County. Children have to be of school age to participate (at least in kindergarten).
