VIDEO: The Boys And Girls Club In Columbus Is Getting A New Look

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The Boys and Girls Club in Columbus gets a gift as we head into the holiday season.

The club is one recipient of a renovation grant from Lowe’s.

The National Boys and Girls Club of America looked at clubs all across the country before deciding Columbus deserved a boost to make things better.

“It’s a $50,000 dollar reward, to help different states with Boys and Girls Clubs that needed to just sort of improve their facilities, particularly around trying to increase teen encouragement, so things that we could do to make our facilities more appealing for teenagers,” says Golden Triangle Boys and Girls Club Chief Executive Officer, Nadia Colom.

A teen lounge and a club room with a pool table, are some of the things being added for the teens.

“Right now, we’d had our teenagers sort of just housed in one space, and it was very similar to what the rest of the club looked like, and we wanted to give them a space where they just kind of had more ownership, felt more independent , and also felt just, you know, privileged as teenagers within the club, and it gives the younger kids something to aspire towards,” says Colom.

That’s not all the grant is being used for. A good portion of of the money has already been used to make other improvements such as paint jobs, and with air conditioning.

“From ceiling tile, redoing the ceiling, from painting, to doing work outside, landscaping, just doing a great upgrade on the facility,” says Lowe’s Manager In Training, Ernest Robinson.

Supplies and workers from Lowe’s are helping make it all possible, along with volunteers from the community and the Columbus Air Force Base.

“This is one of the pillars for us being in the Air Force is making sure that we give back, and be apart of our community that we’re in. The community does a lot for us to be here, and doing things throughout the community, so it’s good for us to give back to them,” says Senior Airman, Donald Porter.

Renovation work will continue this week, and the week of December 19th through the 30th.

If you’re interested in volunteering, contact the Boys and Girls Club in Columbus.

The club hopes the project will be complete around the first of the year.