Students reach out to help at Boys and Girls Club in Binghamton.

The Boys and Girls Club Mentors recently held its first annual Easter event. But the group had little time to celebrate. Its biggest fundraiser of the year, the Boys and Girls Club Annual Dodgeball Tournament, is coming soon – and there is still much work to do.

“No matter what I’m doing, the club is always in the back of my head,” said Samantha Klein, president of the Boys and Girls Club Mentors. “Working at the club has meant everything to me. When I look back at my time being a student here, most of all I’m going to look back on my time as a member of this club and at my relationships with these kids.”

The Boys and Girls Club Mentors is a group of Binghamton University student volunteers who work with children on their reading, writing, math, science and social skills at the Boys and Girls Club on Clinton Street in Binghamton. The mentors tutor kids, play games with them and do projects. According to Klein, however, volunteering for the club means much more.

“Being a mentor means being a positive role model for the kids,” Klein said. “These kids are the best kids I’ve ever met. They make you laugh, they make you cry. It’s nice to feel like a part of their lives. I want to do better for them. I want them to do better for them.”

Thomas Burke, the director of marketing for the group, believes it’s the duty of Binghamton University students to help improve the area. Burke, known to the club as “Pickle-Man” because of a Halloween costume he wore last year, originally started volunteering for a class to fulfill his pluralism requirement.

Human Development 100, taught by Assistant Professor Myra Sabir, requires students to fulfill 15 volunteer hours in the greater Binghamton community. Burke said he loved his time volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club so much that instead of doing 15 hours, he ended up doing more than 40. After discovering that there was actually a club on campus dedicated to mentoring the kids at the Boys and Girls Club, he was sold.

“The relationships that I developed with the kids became something I wanted to continue,” Burke said. “Realizing that this was more than just a project, that I can have an impact on their lives, drove me to keep going.”

Kymel Yard is the volunteer/internship coordinator at the Boys and Girls Club, and he hopes more Binghamton University students will follow in the footsteps of Klein and Burke.

“It’s phenomenal that we have a student group on campus with its sole purpose being to serve our organization,” Yard said. “To me, this is a tangible use of privilege by University students. They fundraise. They use what they have, whether it’s their time, or money, to come in and do something for kids they don’t even know.”

You can support the efforts of the Boys and Girls Club Mentors by attending the BGC Annual Dodgeball Tournament at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 14, in the West Gym. There will be free food, prizes and more. Sign up online!