School supply carnival held at Boys & Girls Club

The Hill City Boys & Girls Club celebrated its 20th anniversary with a carnival to provide members with school supplies for the upcoming year.
The club was originally a local youth center. However, in 2002 the center board under the leadership of former mayor Dave Gray enabled the youth center to become an affiliate of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Black Hills.
Gray’s daughter Megan said, “I just thought he was doing town business. I didn’t know he was working on a place for all the kids.”
Roots for the Boys & Girls Club went down nearly 50 years ago. The Butterfield family donated Chuck Butterfield’s memorial funds to start the youth center in 1974. Meanwhile, a flood house from 1972 was brought to the school through efforts of Bob Butterfield and Orville Hall, former school superintendent.
Several directors including Cindy Coy and Jeff Schlukebier served during its early years.
A school supply carnival seemed a fitting way to celebrate these milestones, providing school supplies for all the kids attending the club.
Students received bags with their names on them and bookmarks at the door. Each got a ticket for the 10 games with instructions to play them all, receiving a school supply item at each and a chance to win a minor prize. After playing all 10 games, they could play any game trying to win a prize.
These games included a ring toss, golf, football throw, Nerf shooting gallery, a duck pond, a fishing pole, a corn hole game donated by Schlukebier, a penny toss and Plinko. Youth from the teen center hosted the game booths, and parents assisted young kids.
All kids went home with a full set of school supplies. This included notebooks, pencils, pencil top erasers, pink pet erasers, a box of 24 crayons, a box of 12 markers, a box of 12 color pencils, highlighters, pencil boxes or note cards, mechanical pencils, library book marks and ink pens. In total, there was enough school supplies for all 80 club members.
The supplies were purchased with $100 donations from Xi Alpha Chi Sorority, Friends of the Library, Lori Miner, Chris Cutler and the Quilt Guild.
“Thanks to the director Veronica Prautzsch, the Boys & Girls Club staff and the responsible club teens for putting on the carnival. Thanks to the sponsors who donated funds to purchase supplies,” said Connie Prautzsch, a Boys & Girls Club volunteer.
Students smiled throughout the carnival enjoying the school supplies they received. Parents called it “a wonderful idea” and as well as appreciating this year’s carnival expressed interest in making it an annual event.