‘We’re thrilled with the outcome’: Renovated South Haven Boys & Girls Club opens

The newly reopened South Haven Boys & Girls Club has had so many renovations that only one room still has the same dimensions it did before the $5.5 million addition and remodeling project began.

“We’re thrilled with the building. We’re thrilled with the outcome,” said Mike Jessen, president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Northwest Indiana.

More than 150 kids attend the club, but it now has the capacity for about 100 additional kids.

“It really is a lifeline for this community,” said Portage Township Trustee Brendan Clancy, who led the fundraising effort for the new project.

“You can talk to anybody who grew up in South Haven, an original landowner, and they can tell you the importance of the Boys & Girls Club,” he said.

The South Haven club opened 42 years ago.

Jessen said the generosity of donors was overwhelming.

He met with Clancy to talk about the project as someone who might be able to energize the community. “Before I could even ask him, he was all out to help in any way he could,” Jessen said.

“This particular project wasn’t an easy project to undertake,” Jessen said. South Haven isn’t home to a number of well-heeled individuals who might be eager to fund the club. Nor does it have large businesses for whom a large donation would be easy.

But the community and nonprofits stepped up to make the project happen.

Jessen and Bill Hanna of the Dean and Barbara White Foundation met recently and talked about the project. “He slid across the table a significant check,” Jessen said.

Hanna couldn’t be at Wednesday’s grand opening but sent his remarks. “It’s what will happen inside that will make a difference to the kids who fill it,” he said.

After 42 years and “thousands and thousands of kids,” the club’s infrastructure was failing, Jessen said. Building a new club to serve Portage and South Haven was an option, he said, but rejected. “The need for a clubhouse in this particular community was unique,” with two elementary schools and a walkable community.

During the yearlong construction, club members attended programs at South Haven’s two elementary schools. “We didn’t want to abandon the kids,” he said.

Jacki Stutzman is among the major donors. “There was just something about South Haven that really grabbed my heart,” he said. “This place is just fantastic.”

The John W. Anderson Foundation has provided operating funds for the Boys and Girls Clubs for half a century. It also helped fund the capital project in South Haven.

“Jacki’s generosity should be a model for us,” said Clyde Compton, a trustee and general counsel for the foundation.

“We can see this foundation is having an impact on the youth of Northwest Indiana, a substantial impact,” Compton said.

The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana is another partner with the South Haven Club. Residents can now order food online and pick it up 24/7 in a locker unit in front of the club. The large locker can accommodate 16 families.

“It’s definitely a huge need,” said Chandra Dixon, the food bank’s director of community impact, adding any South Haven resident can use it, not just families affiliated with the club.

Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.