In this month’s edition of The Hudson Independent, Kids’ Club was featured as part of the newspaper’s “Un­sung He­roes” section, “a se­ries of ar­ti­cles pro­fil­ing those who pro­vide ex­tra­or­di­nary ser­vice to the com­mu­ni­ties in [its] read­er­ship area.” We truly appreciate the acknowledgement, and share the article below.

Un­sung Heros

by Tom Pedulla – 

As Kids’ Club of Tar­ry­town and Sleepy Hol­low nears its 10th an­niver­sary in June, its im­pact on lo­cal girls and boys who are striv­ing for bet­ter lives is pro­found.

The or­ga­ni­za­tion es­ti­mates that it helps fund ap­prox­i­mately 20 pro­grams and as­sists 1,500 chil­dren per year as it ap­proaches $1 mil­lion in do­na­tions since its in­cep­tion. Most of that money was raised through in­di­vid­ual do­na­tions.

“When peo­ple think of Tar­ry­town and Sleepy Hol­low, they don’t al­ways ex­pect that there is need here,” said Jen­nifer Liddy Green, pres­i­dent of Kids’ Club. “When you open peo­ple’s eyes to the fact that there are a lot of low-in­come fam­i­lies who could use ad­di­tional sup­port, it re­ally seems to strike a chord and the re­sponse has been won­der­ful.”

Theresa Kil­man, Linda Vier­tel and Lau­reen Bar­ber founded Kids’ Club to fill a void cre­ated when the Boys and Girls Club of Tar­ry­town closed in June 2009.

“We did­n’t have a fa­cil­ity at which to run pro­grams,” Liddy Green said, “so we de­cided to be­come more of a sup­port for other pro­grams.”

There is no paid staff. The Board of Di­rec­tors cov­ers all ad­min­is­tra­tive costs, en­sur­ing that every dol­lar do­nated is used to as­sist an ar­ray of pro­grams.

“We help kids ba­si­cally from birth through high school and into col­lege,” Green said.

The first ini­tia­tive al­lowed 100 chil­dren to at­tend a lo­cal sum­mer camp in July 2009. Many of the pro­grams funded em­pha­size ed­u­ca­tion, start­ing with early lit­er­acy for in­fants and tod­dlers and con­tin­u­ing into mid­dle school and then into the lat­ter years of high school when stu­dents are prepar­ing for col­lege en­trance ex­am­i­na­tions and need as­sis­tance with the col­lege ap­pli­ca­tion process.

“We en­able stu­dents to have op­por­tu­ni­ties they might not oth­er­wise have, sort of level the play­ing field in the com­mu­nity,” said Maryann Gal­lagher, sec­re­tary of Kids’ Club.

Re­cent years brought into fo­cus the need to be­gin to de­velop skills at an early age and to pro­vide tools nec­es­sary for ad­vance­ment.

“Some de­fi­cien­cies you just can’t make up in the col­lege prep process. At that point, the catch-up is vast,” Gal­lagher said. “You have to start early.”

Kids’ Club sup­ports the Ad­van­tage Af­ter School Pro­gram, which hires ju­niors and se­niors at Sleepy Hol­low High School who are from low-in­come fam­i­lies to help 100 chil­dren from Sleepy Hol­low Mid­dle School with home­work and en­gage them in other worth­while ac­tiv­i­ties.

When Warner Li­brary needs lap­tops and iPads so chil­dren who do not have those at home may use them for school work, Kids’ Club is there. A Break­fast for Bed­ding event is held every June to pro­vide col­lege-bound stu­dents with bed­ding and other dorm room ne­ces­si­ties.

“We are funded on the prin­ci­ple of help­ing those who have trou­ble help­ing them­selves,” said Ray En­dreny, chair­per­son of the Out­reach Com­mit­tee.

His com­mit­tee con­ducts site vis­its to eval­u­ate the ef­fec­tive­ness of var­i­ous un­der­tak­ings. The visit to sum­mer camp, the sight of chil­dren splash­ing in pools or romp­ing in jumpy cas­tles, is al­ways de­light­ful.

“When you are help­ing kids, the joy on their faces can be trans­par­ent,” En­dreny said.

He ex­pe­ri­ences a very dif­fer­ent vibe when he ob­serves the stress and strain on the faces of stu­dents prepar­ing for the col­lege en­trance exam.

“The joy is­n’t ap­par­ent,” En­dreny said, “but you know the work is im­por­tant.”