BENTON -- The loudest thing ever heard on Earth was the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. They say the sound circled the globe four times and ruptured the eardrums of sailors as much as 40 miles at sea. Way, way down on the list, but still ear-popping, is the sound of school kids singing inside the Boys and Girls Club of Saline County.
It's just after school, and a couple of hundred kids are keening the "12 Days of Christmas." When they hit "five golden rings," paint falls from the walls. Among the kids, amid the caterwaul, are Chad and Anna Hendrix. The little ones, including the 2-year-old in Anna's arms, have no idea what kind of support board member Chad, 34, and the former Anna Everett (car dealership matriarch Susie Everett's daughter), 32, bring to bear on their lives.
Three years ago Everett Buick GMC, where Chad is sales manager, made a $50,000 gift to the backpack program (which sends food home with kids who need it). Just before the Christmas break, it bought pizza for the roughly 430 kids at the club.
Since 2007, Chad's been a board member.
"We weren't financially distressed, but we were on that cusp of graying that black line," says Jasen Kelly, the club's chief executive officer. "And, so, what Chad has brought to that table as a board member is that financial expertise, guidance and leadership in making some of those big decisions that we had to make as an organization. His reach into the corporations in the community and businesses in our community has been really helpful, also."
Each school day, hundreds of kids from the elementary, middle and high schools -- the schools are all together, and the club is kind of in the middle -- converge here at closing bell. They get two snacks -- a fruit cup and a granola bar, typically -- and make merry in some kind of loosely organized activity. This day a bunch of the younger ones get a visit from "Elsa" (of Frozen fame) and "Batman," a couple of costumed police department folks.
Chad Hendrix grew up participating in the club. He walked through its doors in first grade, he says. He learned basketball here. Anna was in fifth grade when she volunteered at her first Spring Dinner Gala. "We wore little tuxedos," she remembers.
She was in eighth grade when she and Chad first dated. He doesn't remember pursuing her. On the contrary, "I was stalked," he says. Notwithstanding, he had to ask her dad, Dwight, for the date. Where? Tinseltown movie theater, they think. Was it Titanic? For a couple that's been together more than half their lives, they're decidedly unsure of the details of their first date.
Now their children come to the club.
"It is generational," Kelly says. "You grow up in the club, and then your children come through the club."
"This club is used for so many other things," Chad says. Some high school teams use the facilities for practice, so stretched is the school district for indoor space. "When I was asked to take that position on the board, it was an absolute yes. It was something we wanted to do and be a part of."
"Chad will tell you, that was a heart decision, not a head decision," Kelly says.
A Boys and Girls Club is basically a safe place for young people to be when they're not in school. It's not the club's mission to feed hungry kids, but lots of kids eat there. They're not in the business of watching kids for free when a guardian is at work, but guess what, they do.
This Boys and Girls Club, the liaison between the national office and all the clubs in the state, is in a growth pattern. It has broken ground on a 55,000-square-foot center over in Riverside Park on Citizens Drive, funded through a citywide sales tax initiative passed in 2013. And this summer it acquired the North Garland County Paul Bewie Boys and Girls Club in Hot Springs Village to serve kids in the Mountain Pine, Jessieville and Fountain Lake school districts. Kelly and company are trying to get staff in place and ready to serve kids when that club reopens a week from Monday.
Chad Hendrix is the kind of board member who brings a much-needed financial sensitivity to the organization, Kelly said, and the Bewie acquisition "was made based on mission. That community needs that club."
About two-thirds of the club's budget is comprised of state and federal grants. The rest comes from events, like the annual Justin Moore's Night to be Great concert (party), individual donations and corporate gifts. A sliver comes from membership fees.
Perhaps the most interesting "satellite" of the Saline County club is the unit behind the concertina wire at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center in nearby Alexander. "That is a really dreary place. We're the bright spot on campus," Kelly says.
Facility administrator DeShane Reed agrees. "When we look at treatment, treatment is not just group and individual therapy. Treatment is a holistic approach that includes schools, the Boys and Girls Club, counselors [and other resources], but they [the club] are a pretty nice piece of that pie."
The budget is just about $1.3 million, and the administrators' offices look like it. Several are up a dim flight of carpeted stairs. They're plain and functional. It's the only club in the state that's also a 21st Century Community Learning Center site, meaning it provides afterschool math and literacy intervention, or tutoring and homework help, funded by the federal government and overseen by the state Department of Education.
One of the things at the main club site that the Hendrixes adore is the garden out back. It's three greenhouses, several raised beds and a chicken coop. At first the couple thought the idea was nuts -- "In the middle of the city?" Chad remembers thinking -- but they're converts. Kelly says over the last year the club has sent kids home with as many as 2,000 eggs.
"Working a chicken coop, a garden, it's hard work, too, and they buy into it. This is fun for them," Chad says. "When you're around these children, you know them. ... We probably all have more than we deserve right now, and when you're in a position to try and do something about that, it's important."
High Profile on 12/27/2015