SUMTER, S.C. — The Sumter Boys & Girls Club is a part of the local Salvation Army, and it’s currently raising money to get a van and a playground.
The club recently moved to a new location in downtown Sumter and provides activities for students year-round like 9-year-old Tyrone Burnett and his little sister Taniyah.
"Play tag and play with friends and talk," Burnett says about what he would do if they had a playground at the club, which is trying to raise $30,000 to put toward that goal.
"We're a nonprofit organization, so anything helps anything," Program Coordinator Brooke Mayfield explains. "Anything at all."
Mayfield works with Diana Rouse, another program coordinator, to serve about 30 kids every weekday, helping with homework during the school year and hosting fun activities like dodgeball and trips to the library, aquatic center or movie theater over the summer.
"As you can see the kids need a playground. They really need a playground. They take these balls and this basketball court…I mean they play with it like it is gold," Mayfield shares. "So I think they deserve a playground and we need the other bus for transportation so we don't have to make two to three trips, you know? It would just help a lot."
They’re collecting donations, and say they have saved about $13,000 so far for a 15-person bus, which would allow the club to more easily transport kids to field trips.
"We’ve needed it for a long time now," Mayfield explains.
"You don't know what kids go home to in the afternoon," Rouse adds about the need. "Some of them don't have parents that could help them with their homework or, you know, feed them or, you know, you don't know what kids go home to. But we help the kids out a whole lot."
If you'd like to donate to the Boys & Girls Club, you can drop by the location at 16 Kendrick St., email SumterSC@uss.salvationarmy.org or message the organization's Facebook page.