'Roll with it': Starkville Boys and Girls Club returning to normalcy
Jul. 6—STARKVILLE — Shanique Morgan measures the pandemic by her son's reading progress.
When the pandemic began, he was only 3. He didn't understand what was happening, so she tried to create normalcy for him. She tried a little bit of everything: She got him an indoor trampoline, a bike, and a water slide. They tried to play outside in the backyard each day, and once restrictions were lifted, she took him to a nearby park to play.
Morgan set up a routine, and used the time in lockdown as an opportunity to help teach her son some things to master his ABCs, his sounds, his phonics, and to identify letters.
"I can actually say when the pandemic first hit, he couldn't recognize all his letters," she said. "But then, by the time we actually came back to work in August, he was able to identify all of his letters, make the sounds and things like that."
As the unit director for the Starkville Boys and Girls Club, Morgan often measures her time by children. Originally from Newton, she went to college at Mississippi State University in Starkville. She began working as a youth development professional in 2012 before she went to graduate school.
After a two year hiatus, she returned to the field to serve as the site director, a position she's held for four years.
It was during Spring Break in March 2020 when COVID-19 came. The club, which operates on the local schools' schedule, was open and using the school district bus for field trips during spring break of March 2020 when COVID-19 hit. As news spread about the virus, the club canceled their final trips that week. By Friday evening, state school districts extended spring break before ultimately shutting down schools for in-person instruction for the rest of the school year.
At first, Morgan didn't understand what was going on. She remembers staying in the house with her son, nervous to go out because all she saw about COVID-19 through the media was that people were catching the virus and dying from it. As it was for most Americans, mandated lockdown was a first for her; she was shocked when the United States essentially shut down.
"That had never happened. You had just kind of always been free to roam and go about and do your normal activities, and so it ceased for everybody," Morgan said. "Life as I've always known it was different."
The Boys and Girls Club stayed closed as well. Their board formed a COVID-19 committee and decided to open with only virtual programming during June and July, using the summer to prepare for children's arrival. That summer, they served 95 kids per day rather than their typical 150 to 180 students.
Shortage of PPE supplies was a factor. After a series of meetings where they talked with board members, parents and staff, they opened their doors again in August. They implemented guidelines that would require mandatory masks, social distancing, handwashing, and a nonsharing policy.
They also have limited activities. Instead of serving 120 to 130 kids during the fall and spring, as they did pre-pandemic, they served 40 to 50 students per day in the fall to allow them to restrict classroom sizes to nine students with a single staff member per classroom.
As a unit director, Morgan saw families do what they could during the pandemic. Many of their members are from single parent households or have parents who were essential workers. Even as everything else shut down, they returned to work. Morgan said the club wanted to be there for the parents who relied on them for much-needed childcare.
Children missed their peer-to-peer relationships, so when the Boys and Girls Club reopened, they were excited to be back.
"Even though we had guidelines in place, they're still children," Morgan said. "They're going to continue to be children, and so they want to interact with one another, they want to do things that children do so it was different trying to get them to adjust to some of the policies in place, especially not touching one another and mask wearing."
As the spring semester rolled around, the club loosened restrictions and increased enrollment to 50 to 60 students. Morgan believes vaccinations have played a role in the world opening up more, though not necessarily within her own club since many of their members are too young to receive the vaccine.
Personally, Morgan feels the Starkville Boys and Girls Club is in a much better place than it was last year. As they move forward, she hopes each semester they are able to increase enrollment and return to normalcy.
This past year taught Morgan that not everything goes according to plan. The challenge, for herself and everyone, is to be willing to embrace and adapt to change.
"This past year, there were a lot of changes for everybody, and you have to embrace those changes and go with the flow and just understand everything happens for a reason," Morgan said. "Personally, I trust God and know whatever plan he has, I'm going to roll with it."
