The backyard at the Boys and Girls Club got an extreme makeover this week.
About 85 workers from Coast Capital Savings combined team-building with charitable work to give a fixer-upper to the grounds at the Boys and Girls Club of Central Vancouver Island on Fifth Street on Friday.
Kelly Barnie, director of sales, marketing and communications with the Boys and Girls Club chapter, said the organization got a phone call just a few weeks ago from Coast Capital, which has sponsored the club on other occasions in the past.
The Boys and Girls Club and Coast Capital worked together generating ideas. The Coast Capital team created a tetherball court, new covers for the sandbox, privacy screens for the chainlink fence, chalk art wall and more, renovated a shed and painted a mural.
“All these bankers suddenly turned into construction people and artists and made this all happen,” Barnie said.
Chris Stocco, senior manager of commercial bank operations with Coast Capital Savings, said about 20 of the workers were from the Island and the rest came over from the mainland for the day. He said his team was excited to make Friday’s renovation project happen.
“At Coast, one of our pillars is community [and] youth is part of the program for our community focus,” Stocco said. “So we looked for an opportunity here on the mid Island that was targeting youth.”
Barnie said the project is an amazing transformation that will make a difference for the children who come to the club.
“A lot of these kids don’t always see experiences that just let them be a kid, that every kid deserves to have,” she said. “And that’s part of what being a Boys and Girls Club is. Yes, you may come for child care, but you come for the experiences and the learning opportunities.
“Whether it’s creative arts on the chalk wall, physical activity on the foursquare, it kind of puts everything together in a space that’s theirs.”