North side Milwaukee Boys & Girls Club location will close at end of August
A Boys & Girls Club in a north side Milwaukee neighborhood announced this week it would permanently close on its final day of summer programming.
The Daniels-Mardak Boys & Girls Club, 4834 N 35th St., will close Aug. 25. The club sits next to the Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God in Christ and opened in March 2004.
"We apologize for any inconvenience the closing of Daniels-Mardak may cause your family," Chief Operations Officer Kimberly Walker wrote in the announcement. "It has been a privilege to serve your family, and we hope to continue to serve you at one of our other club locations."
The Boys & Girls Club locations closest to Daniels-Mardak are at Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education, Milwaukee Collegiate Academy, Carson Academy and Marvin E. Pratt Elementary. Barack Obama School is less than a mile from the Daniels-Mardak location.
Members of Daniels-Mardak can move to any other greater Milwaukee Boys & Girls Club. Daniels-Mardak's 19 staff members will be transferred to other locations.
"(The staff) is why the kid's come," Boys & Girls Clubs President and CEO Vincent Lyles said. "It's not a program, and quite frankly it’s not about a building.”
The attendance Daniels-Mardak hovers between 275 and 300 kids, an average attendance for the organization's larger locations, he said.
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Lyles said the choice to shutter Daniels-Mardak was ultimately a business decision and will give the organization an opportunity to serve better serve other areas.
"We are always monitoring our situations at our various sites because we don't own anything," he said. "We as tenants always have to be conscious of issues."
The group plans to open six new locations this fall, he said.
The club told parents about the closure Tuesday. All greater Milwaukee Boys & Girls club locations were already set to close Aug. 25 and reopen Sept. 12.
Dana Williamson, 45, said three of her children went to nearby Holy Redeemer Christian Academy and the Daniels-Mardak club gave her family a safe and affordable after-school and summer program.
“We developed a family there," she said. "To know that they’re closing breaks my heart."
Her children gained valuable people skills and picked up new hobbies during their time as members, she said.
“With all that’s going on in Milwaukee right now, the Boys & Girls Club is the last thing that needs to be shut down in that area," she said.
Ricquelle Badger, 27, sent her 4- and 5-year-old boys to Daniels-Mardak for the summer program for the first time this year. She planned to keep sending them to the location when school began.
"It's really unfortunate," she said. "It's a great program."