‘Organized chaos’: Boys & Girls Clubs try to restore comfort to anxious kids

MOSES LAKE — It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdowns have made things difficult for the country’s kids.

So Kim Pope at the Boys & Girls Clubs of The Columbia Basin is hoping to do something about it.

“The kids, because of COVID, are having such a difficult time being isolated,” the club’s executive director said. “They’re not having the friendships they normally do, they can’t hug their friends. All these struggles that they have, and we worry about their health, and how they feel about themselves.”

Prompted by interest from the organization Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS), which was doing its own solicitation of craft supplies for the club, Pope said MOPS member and Usborne Books & More representative Lindsay Erickson came forward with an idea to raise money for books to help kids, who have been struggling over the last year, deal with the difficult things many are feeling as a result of COVID-19.

The activity books are part of Usborne Books & More Mindful Kids Collection, and give children and young people a place to express how they are feeling if they don’t have someone to talk to, Pope said.

“Social, emotional learning right now is really kind of the key,” she said. “This helps them. If they don’t have somebody they can talk to, then they can go through this book at their own pace, feel good about themselves and really boost their self-confidence.”

Pope showed off a copy of “No Worries! An Activity Book For Young People Who Sometimes Feel Anxious or Stressed,” one of seven books in the series, and among the many activities in the book allows kids to list their worries, figure out which ones might happen and which ones likely won’t, and then suggests some things they can say to worries that will unlikely come to pass, such as “Go away!” or “I don’t believe you.”

According to Pope, the kids most in need of having a way to work through their feelings are the older elementary school kids, like fifth-graders and middle-schoolers.

“The younger kids seem to adapt a little more,” she said. “But these kids know what life used to be like, and now what life is like.”

Many kids in grades six through eight have just started becoming involved in group activities, like sports or spelling bees or math competitions, that give them confidence, Pope said.

“They’ve missed all of that. They’ve missed friendships with people that have similar interests to them,” she said.

Pope said the club has managed to raise around $350 toward the book purchase. With a 50% match from Usborne Books & More, it will go some way toward getting a copy for all of the 60 young people at the club’s main clubhouse, next to Park Orchard Elementary School on Paxson Drive, as well as the 50 kids at the club’s satellite summer clubhouse at North Elementary School on West Craig Street.

“We’re going to get as many as we can and then really think about the middle school group,” she said. “Especially the ones that we see are having a bit of a struggle.”

Even as the state prepares to open, Pope said she still does not know when the clubhouse will be able to fully reopen. Right now, space is limited, since kids have to be kept in what Pope called “pods,” must maintain 3 feet of social distance at most times, and still wear masks. Right now, they’ve been told to prepare to continue doing that come fall, when school restarts.

“We don’t want to shut down; there are so many people that depend on us, families, we’ve got to do whatever we can to stay open,” she said. “It’s been sad because we don’t have as many kids.”

“Typically, after school, we’d have 185 kids here,” Pope added. “Organized chaos is what we call it because kids are having fun.”

However, Pope said she is fortunate the club has remained open at all during the pandemic, and hopes things can get back to normal — with much noisier controlled chaos — as soon as possible.

“We want more. If they opened up it would be, ‘Oh my gosh.’ If they gave us the green light, it would be fantastic. We would have a celebration,” she said.

For more information on the fundraiser or to donate, go to paypal.me/pools/c/8A9JjKcrFi.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.