Roslyn Boys and Girls Club Organization
The Roslyn Boys & Girls Club was established in 1953. At that time the club provided a place for area youth to play football, baseball, softball and soccer. The organization built a clubhouse to furnish a facility that at that time could provide indoor activities plus serve as a place where meetings could be held as well as an area for storage.
Over time and especially in the last 10 years we realized that as an organization, our focus should not only be on youth but for the entire community.
About six years ago the organization decided to expand its horizons from a strictly sports oriented group to an organization that could serve the entire community year round. We embarked upon what would eventually turn out to be a very aggressive and time consuming campaign to convert the facilities into a type of community center that would be utilized by not only the youth of our community but also local groups, organizations and senior citizens of the area with an emphasis on education.
Our dreams and goals became a reality when in the spring of 1996 we completed remodeling the inside of the facility. We converted part of it into an activities room and installed video games, pool and air hockey tables. We also transformed a portion into a computer room in which we had eight computers and work stations with printers and copiers. The club had worked out a deal with Penn State in which we would have a direct link with them and we would be provided free internet access through them. We offered free computer classes as well as opened the facility to school students and adults for their use.
We opened the facility for community use in which four girl scout troops, town watch, a modeler's club, the MONTCO Baseball Organization, EPYSA Soccer Organization and several other local organizations utilized it as a meeting place free of charge.
We also worked hand in hand with the Abington Township Community policing and established many local programs. We had a latch key program where students after school would come to our facility and in a supervised atmosphere utilize the activities till their parents came home from work. This Community Policing also had many other programs such as bike safety and registration, baby sitting courses, Citizen's Police Academy and many other educational programs.
Our computer center as well as many of the programs listed above are only a part of the educational programs that were being offered. The ease of access to our facility afforded us the opportunity to work with many other organizations all of whom have the common goal of educating the community's young and old. Some other examples of this were the 55 Alive/Mature Driving Program, Abington Hospital working on running educational clinics for senior citizens and the community at large. We were in the process of working with the local schools to institute some of their programs into our center when the disaster struck us.
On September 8, 1996, the Roslyn Community was devastated by the remnants of Hurricane Fran. The storm dumped ten inches of rain in less than two hours, causing a flood and tremendous damage to many homes. FEMA declared Roslyn a national disaster area. The clubhouse was totally demolished and all of its contents destroyed.
An aggressive campaign was launched to rebuild the facility which was destroyed. New goals were set and what was once a reality turned into a dream and was worked on to become a reality again. Through the hard work of a group of dedicated people the facility was rebuilt and a new era was begun.
The facility now offers a computer room which has 5 new computers with Comcast internet access. An activity room which has baseball air hockey and video games has also been added. A main room which has a large screen TV for instruction as well as entertainment has been included. The facility is handicap accessible and the bathrooms are open for use during games at Roslyn Park.
Our Sports' program in spite of the flood continues to flourish and has prospered. Our baseball, softball and soccer programs are second to none.
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