BY JESSICA PETERSON
Champaign resident Sara Balgoyen is the new Executive Director for the Mahomet Area Youth Club (MAYC).
She said although she does not live in Mahomet she sees a lot of overlapping connections between the two communities.
“I’ve been meeting a lot of new people and so far the welcome has been great,” Balgoyen said.
For the past ten years she worked as first the Operations Manager and then the Executive Director for the non-profit Illinois Balanced and Restorative Justice.
While she is a new face to MAYC there are board members and staff members who have been a part of the organization since 1994 when it was founded by Gary and Trudy Matthews.
Deb Kimme, the committee chair of the club’s annual auction, said something that has stayed consistent over the years is the focus being on the kids MAYC serves and to create a safe space for them.
Balgoyen said they are expecting over 100 kids for the summer day camp programs offered.
During the year, MAYC also hosts the Mahomet-Seymour School District’s Adult Transition Living and Advocacy Skills (ATLAS) program for individuals with developmental disorders who are between 18 and 22 years old. Physical therapists come to the center to work with Atlas members during the day and there are weekly field trips built into the programming.
“(They’re) young adults learning about job and life skills,” Balgoyen said.
MAYC also provides scholarships to the students they serve to receive after school care in the Mahomet-Seymour School District’s after school Bulldogs Learning and Succeeding Together (BLAST) program.
“(We want) to teach the kids what it means to be a good citizen. To me that means being honest and involved (as well as) a caring, contributing and hardworking member of society,” Kimme said.
One of MAYC’s very first members and current board member, Karl Mauzy, joined the program when he was 12 going on 13. He said he recalls all the sports teams MAYC would facilitate and the impact coaches could make on the kids’ lives.
“MAYC is an absolute wonderful place…it makes a kid feel like they belong. It gives them a place to call their own,” Mauzy said.
Mauzy said he remembers the community involvement MAYC encouraged.
This included having a float in annual town parades and offering opportunities for kids to give back to the community. Kids could spend time at nursing homes and older students had a chance to mentor younger members by working or volunteering as a counselor with the program.
Balgoyen looks at the future of MAYC as an option to continue diversifying funds in order to ensure the sustainability of the organization.
She mentioned a private donor who is helping MAYC renovate their kitchen with commercial grade appliances.
“We’re really excited about that because cooking for 80-100 people is a challenge,” Balgoyen said.
One of Balgoyen’s priorities is to fill the gap in availability of food for students at MAYC during the summer months.
The organization offers an option where families can pay by the day for summer camp as well as student scholarships. Balgoyen said they will continue trying to meet every request they receive for scholarships.
Both Kimme and Balgoyen encouraged community members to come out for the 2019 MAYC Auction fundraiser from 5:30-9:30 p.m. on June 8th.
There will also be a 5k run happening in August members can participate in, but the board accepts donations all year round.
