Paul Szmal: F-L-X Morning continues now. It is 840 and we've got plenty of that sunshine that Kevin was talking about. Temperature is starting to move up. We started at 53 this morning and we're up to 56 so we've moved up about three degrees in the past hour and a half or so. I have a pair of folks joining us from the Geneva Boys and Girls Club now. I'd like to introduce first Stephanie Hessler. Good morning, Stephanie. How are you?
Stephanie Hessler: Good morning. I'm great. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Good. Good. And we'll also introduce Ryan Hughes, who is the director of Toddler Time. Ryan, good morning. How are you?
Ryan Hughes: Good morning. I'm good. Thank you. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Wonderful. Wonderful. I know we'd like to start off with some announcements and some important information from the Boys and Girls Club. So Stephanie, I'll leave that to you to go ahead and get us informed.
Stephanie Hessler: Sure. Thanks so much. First of all, we're excited to be back this school year with our after school program and I just wanted listeners to know that we still have openings for kids in grades K-2 and 3-8 at both of our Goodman and Carter sites and the way you learn more about that and get, become enrolled is to call our number here at Carter, which is 315-759-6060. We're also continuing to hire activity coordinators to work with those kids. We've got a great team and we're, and there's room for more. So if you like working with children, those age, that in that age group, we'd love to, we'd love to talk with you there.
And supporting all of that and a little, and toddler time as well. And you'll hear about that in just a few minutes, but we are planning for our annual dinner, which is scheduled for Thursday, October 16th at Club 86. And we welcome sponsors and individual ticket sales, individuals. The cost is $75 and plenty of room for sponsors. And if you're not on our list, haven't heard from us yet, please reach out to that same number. Our website is currently under construction. So by phone right now is really the best way to reach us. And our theme this year is the future looks bright. So when invitations are out and you'll see information on social media, we've got a great little drawing from one of our members that shows a little bit about her dreams for the future. And I think folks will appreciate it. She did a great job. It's a super colorful piece of artwork. So look forward to sharing that.
So those are the highlights, but, and all of that supports, like I said, toddler time and love to hear, let Ryan give Ryan a chance to share a little more about toddler time and the exciting things she's been up to.
Paul Szmal: Sure. Let's start with Ryan. How long have you been the director for toddler time at the boys and girls club?
Ryan Hughes: Next month will actually be my first year anniversary of being the director here.
Paul Szmal: How has the first year gone for you?
Ryan Hughes: It's gone wonderful. I've been able to really get to know the families and the kids that come and get numbers up for who is attending the program and, and have some exciting programs for the children and the families to attend as well.
Paul Szmal: Now I'm always curious when you have a program like this that is geared, especially towards the very young children, what kind of activities do you decide on and how do you, how do you go through that decision process?
Ryan Hughes: Yeah. So I, for in the beginning of finding activities to do, I kind of went with, you know, the holiday themes or any kind of monthly theme and kind of what the, what the parents are looking for. I, my very first program, I did a workshop with a woman who sold fine motor activities and little busy bag like activities for children. And that went really well. And then I moved to more of, like I said, the holiday theme, but now I really take a look at kind of what the national days are. Yesterday we celebrated national teddy bear day here at Toddler Time and children were able to go home with a teddy bear and play with a teddy bear throughout their time here at Toddler Time.
And I also noticed there are quite a few kids who will come to Toddler Time who don't enjoy the loudness of the gym at times. So I make sure to have more quiet, independent activities outside the gym as well, such as different sensory bins, coloring, Play-Doh, other fun things like that for kids and their families to do.
Paul Szmal: So when we're talking Toddler Time, what age groups specifically are we talking about?
Ryan Hughes: We serve children ages zero to three, but a lot of four year olds who do half day preschool or other kind of not full day schooling yet also come. So I don't really send anybody away that comes that's older than that age group, but it's really geared towards that zero to three age.
Paul Szmal: And how many kids are there on average?
Ryan Hughes: My average for the last month was about 11 a day, but our numbers have been going up and up. So Saturdays are getting back to being very busy now that school is back in session and there are less festivals and graduation parties and stuff going on for families to do. So we're back to getting the numbers up in about the 15 to 20 range.
Paul Szmal: Now I have to tell you, I have a niece and a nephew. My niece is one, my nephew is three. And just being around them for a couple of days can be exhausting. So I can only imagine what it's like to handle a dozen toddlers or more trying to get them all coordinated to do activities and participate in things and so on and so forth. So my hat is certainly off to you in that department.
Ryan Hughes: Thank you.
Paul Szmal: We're continuing on here talking with Ryan Hughes from the toddler time portion of the Geneva Boys and Girls Club. She's the director. Stephanie Hessler is online with us here as well, of course. And Ryan, what do you see for the future of the toddler time program?
Ryan Hughes: I see more programs that will bring more children and families in and also the hopes of providing more and more resources for those families who need it.
Paul Szmal: And is the idea to continue to grow the program or?
Ryan Hughes: Yes. Yes, it is. I would love to see kind of more. I started a story time program, so I'm kind of hoping to bring in more outside programs like story time and music and other kinds of classes like that to toddler time.
Paul Szmal: And do you find that the kids really enjoy the activities that are being presented to them?
Ryan Hughes: Yes, definitely. I see a lot of happy smiley faces. That's the best part right there when you when you get smiles on the little kids faces and they're having fun.
Paul Szmal: For sure. It's a it's really nice here when you can hear the kids laughing and their excitement in the gym. It makes, you know, such a big impact on the overall environment of the building. And Stephanie, this is just one of a number of programs for children that are available at the Geneva Boys and Girls Club.
Stephanie Hessler: Yes, that's right. And, you know, like I was mentioning, the after school program and we work really hard together as a team to choreograph all of the different things going on in the building. And certainly, you know, Ryan Hughes and her toddler time program are a shining star in that. I was just going to ask her to maybe speak one more minute about the clinic that you had recently with Get Ready to Grow in Rochester Regional, if you don't mind.
Ryan Hughes: Sure. Yes. About two weeks ago, I think it was, we had a Get Ready to Grow, which does developmental screening for children ages one to five. And Rochester Regional Health co-sponsored with us to invite them into our building and offer those screenings to the children that come to toddler time or they didn't have to come to toddler time, anybody in the area. They do this for Wayne County already. And we were trying to bring it to Ontario Crown to see what the interest level was.
The children were screened in vision, speech, motor development, hearing, and other language screenings. And they were, the parents were given the information right then and there of what kinds of things they could do to help their child grow in those areas. They were giving information for pediatricians and other service providers that could help in those areas. So it was a very, very successful event. We also had Child and Family Resources here doing car safety checks. We had WIC here helping families get enrolled in their services. And we had Happiness House here helping to enroll, and Head Start as well helping to enroll kids in school that wanted to be.
Paul Szmal: Sounds like it was a very comprehensive program.
Ryan Hughes: It was. It was. It was exhausting, but it was wonderful.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I can imagine that would be the case too. Ryan, thank you so much for joining us here this morning and filling us in on toddler time. Stephanie, anything else we need to cover?
Stephanie Hessler: Well, I think Ryan's being a little modest. She hasn't even said her total enrollment overall is almost 400 kids, so you might see a dozen per day. But anyway, it's been a great program, and there's also a resource giveaway like Diaper Giveaway and other things that are part of this. So we could probably talk for an hour, but you've seen a snippet, and we're so pleased that Ryan's just really taken this program and running with it and adding so many great things. And I'm just really proud of our team, Ryan, and the rest of our team working together to do so many things for kids and for the community.
Paul Szmal: So a lot of great things going on at the Boys and Girls Club of Geneva. Yeah, certainly. And Stephanie, thank you, as always, for joining us each month. And once again, Ryan, thank you for being here as well.
Ryan Hughes: Thank you for having me. It is 8.52 on FLX Morning.
