By Erin Porteous, CEO
During this first week of fall, I’ve been reflecting on the concept of beginnings and the cyclical nature of our lives. We each live through a series of endings and beginnings that we mark as milestones on our journey.
These endings and beginnings balance each other out over time – at least that is our hope. So, as we begin this new season at Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver, we are abundantly aware that this time of uncertainty has been jolting for all of us; and through the eyes of a child, the inconsistencies that came with the pandemic were even more disruptive.
While life has felt rife with endings in the last year-and-a-half, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver has always been a place built on beginnings. Every child who walks through our doors has a fresh start. This is true whether it’s their first time in the Club or they’ve been a member for 10 years. It’s true on the first day of school and the last day of school, and every day in between.
We believe in the potential of every child and every moment, no matter the circumstances or exigencies of the world around us. This means we are always beginning again – and we believe that every child can begin again. A new season is a symbol of this, but we know that it happens every single day.
On September 10, I was thrilled to welcome so many of you – our supporters – to our first event in 18 months: Ignite! Speaking of new beginnings, this joyous celebration was a first-of-its-kind event for us. At the event, poet Andrea Gibson performed a piece written just for us, which included the following lines:
“As children we began to write the book of our lives,
but none of us write our story alone.
Other characters help mold the plot, remind us
we can turn the page, start a new chapter.
Remind us to never write an ending
where a beginning longs to be.”
Today, as we forge a path forward as a community and an organization, we remind ourselves that this is our charge: to teach, play, and walk alongside children as they write the book of their lives, starting new chapters every day. Right now, that means supporting our Club kids through this new season and this school year. And for us as an organization, it also means celebrating the opening of a brand-new Club this week at Colorado Sports Leadership Academy.
Because if we believe our kids can begin again and again, we know with certainty that we can, too.