Ex Club Kid Helps Boys and Girls Club Reopen

Former ‘Club Kid’ and newly appointed board chair works to reopen La Quinta Boys and Girls Club Safely

Clara Levrault knows more than most how critical it is for the Boys and Girls Club to be open and available to the community. Levrault’s parents utilized the Boys and Girls Club as a safe place for her to be after school for 7 years in the 1990s. Having a safe place for their daughter and son to go after school allowed her parents to work to support the family.

Now, more than 20 years later, Clara Levrault is the newly appointed Board Chair of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Coachella Valley (BGCCV). In her newly appointed position, Clara worked diligently with Riverside County Public Health and local school districts to find a way to reopen the clubs safely. CEO Dr. Quinton Egson and Clara Levrault were able to achieve this goal in September, reopening not only the La Quinta Club, but also the other three locations under the umbrella of Boys and Girls Clubs of Coachella Valley (Indio, Mecca, and Coachella).

While activities at “The Club” look very different from the activities Pre-COVID, the feedback from parents is one of extreme gratitude. BGCCV La Quinta Club Director Siah Nix shared “Parents are so grateful to have a safe place for their children to go and engage in distance learning while allowing the parents to go to work and support their families.” Safety precautions have led Siah Nix and his staff to become increasingly creative in ensuring that the activities for the kids are both engaging and safe: “We recently had an Olympics where we had events that allowed kids to be socially distanced, such as the high jump, the long jump, and a paper airplane contest.”

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Coachella Valley held a Grand Re-opening of the La Quinta Club on Oct. 2, 2020 to share with the community that “The Club” has reopened with new measures to ensure everyone’s safety. The “one step at a time” process sets forth strict rules such as sanitizing or hand washing every hour, wearing a facemask at all times, having temperatures taken prior to entry, and keeping six feet apart. “In addition,” said Dr. Egson, “No groups are allowed to share program or common areas and the areas themselves are cleaned and sanitized with increased frequency.”

At the reopening, Levrault shared with the “club kids” in attendance, that just like them, she grew up in “The Club.” She shared that she played in the same gym they do today and did her homework in the same library where they do theirs. Today, Levrault is a Deputy District Attorney for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. “Seeing me now as an attorney” Levrault shared “you may think that everything in my life must have been easy, but I can assure you it wasn’t. We all have our ‘stuff’, the stuff that makes you wonder if you can do it: if you can go to college, if you can reach your goals. Just know, I had ‘stuff’ too, ‘stuff’ that made growing up hard. But, life is about working through and overcoming that ‘stuff’.” In closing, Levrault imparted on the kids, “No matter what your ‘stuff’ is, if you work hard and do your best, you can become whomever you want to be.”