Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-03-16
BOYS CLUB STILL
A MECCA FOR
YOUNG PEOPLE

A MECCA FOR
YOUNG PEOPLE
/ With the completion of a success
full drive for funds and with the pur-
chase Of their own club house the
Waterville Boys club seems TO have
dropped from the public eye. But
with the younger generation the
popularity that the organization
gained in it's first months of exist
there are $50 boys as a daily aver
age going to the club house to enjoy
the good fellowship and amusement
to be found there.
The roster of the club now includes
740 enthusiastic youngsters and there
will be no more taken in until the
summer vacation is ended next Sep
TENDER. Now that the problem of
assimilating new members all the
time is past. the time of experiment.
ing and uncertainty is overland the
club has outlined definite program
OF activity which gives all the boys
q chance to function.
Athletics have been given much at
tention and the fine gymnasium Of
the club is the scene of exhilerating
energy every afternoon and evening
No one who visits the building and
sees the younger generation build
ing their bodies up through hard
clean play can doubt the untold ad-
vantage that the club is to them in
this respect alone.
The athletic department is under
the supervision of Cleal Cowing Of
Springfield. Mass. a student at Colby
college. Soon a track meet for boys
under the age Of 10 years is to be
run off. The events are high and
broad jumps and a potato race. The
idea was eagerly taken up by the
younger members and practically all
Of them have signified their intention
of entering some one of the events.
Tho Waterville Boys club basket
ball team has been an entire success.
The first game, played against the
second team from Coburn Classical
Institute, was lost by a margin of
two points. but during this contest
the boys found themselves and in
the four other games they have play
ed they have been easy conquerors.
Twice have the Winslow High school
freshmen fallen before skillful shoot
ing of the club team end the other
tlCIlllS nave UScn luo
school team and the Five Aces.
The basketball coach is Henry
(Hyme) Shanahan of Coburn CLASH
call Institute. Hyme captained this
years team at Coburn and he knows
the game from every angle. When
the first call for candidates for the
team was issued the turnout was so
large that, by the process Of selection,
OF
found and the championship aggre-
cation resulted.
The boys in the Junior B class,
from 10 to IA years old. have a bas-
ketball league Of six teams. Each
Monday and Thursday night the
youngsters vie for the top honOrs of
the clubs and their interest Is SO in
tense that one would think they were
after the championship Of the world.
The first round of a pool tourna-
n1ent Is now well under way for the
intermediate members and a sur
prising number of adept shots has
come forth. In the matches which
have beao played 60 far NJ. Mandell,
Fred Maheu and Charles McLeary
have been winners. Two more
games are to be played and then
the semi-finals will commence. Dur
Ing the course of the matches there
is always q large gathering of spec
tators and enthusiasm wakes high.
The Club Library
The library of the club has always
been a busy place and it is growing
steadily. Hardly a day goes by but
what one ~ more books are donated
and they receive much use for this
has come to be the favorite depart
ment of the club with many of the
boys. Three magazine subscrip-
tons have been recently given to the
club. George H. MARI presented t.
James H. Allen. the Scientific
American and Mrs. r. B. Stewart.
the youths Companion" for all
of which q bad need had been felt.
But all the gifts to the clubs are
not in the form Of books and there
have been others equally appreciat-
ed. When the clubhouse was OPEN
ed there was not, in the whole build
Ing time piece and the boys were
always in doubt as to the proper
time for them to call it a day cnd
go home. Since then the Freeman
Jewelry store and the Hartman
Jewelry store have both donated
large wall clocks and S. Russakoff
is soon to install one in the gym
nasium.
The great use to which the club
house is being put taxed the facilities
so strenuously that additions have
already been made to the equipment.
CarOms, when the club first opened,
was a game known to but few of the
youths and they did not tage it up
to any great extent very quickly. But
as soon as they learned the fascin-
alton that lay in the game the ORR
gfnal number OF carom tables proved
far too small and six have been add
ed to meet the deman. Two new
pool tables, ordered some time ago,
have arrived also and are receiving
their full share of use.
Discipline. which has never caus-
ed much trouble to the club super
fntendent, Frank J. Goodrich, is still
thing that causes little thought.
Since last December, when the doors
of the clubhouse were thrown open
1t has been necessary to send but
three boys home for violating the
simple rulings of the organization,
IN some instances the members
themselves have taken charge of the
various rooms for afternoons or eve
nings with the power to discipline.
This has proved a satisfactory ex-
pertinent and Mr.. Goodrich is plan
ming for more of It.