Boys & Girls Club to open Winter Garden branch in August

Nearly two years after the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida broke ground on the new Winter Garden branch, the organization anxiously awaits August for construction to be complete. 

The $5.5 million project broke ground in 2024 on Ninth Street. The Orange County Board of County Commission approved a funding agreement in the amount of $440,000 during its meeting Tuesday, Jan. 13, to support the new branch. 

The branch will provide a new facility and amenities to the West Orange Boys & Girls Club, which has outgrown its current space at the West Orange Recreation Center. 

Boys & Girls Club Service Director Shamel Akins said the new location will be able to service more than 220 youth, more than five times the amount of children they are able to serve currently. 

The 20,000-square-foot project will include both a youth center and a teen center. 

“Instead of having one space where we’re able to do culinary once a month, we’ll be able to do culinary programs two to three times throughout the week,” Akins said.  

And culinary programs aren’t the only ones expanding. 

Arts and crafts, digital literacy, STEM learning, sports and more all will be practiced more often at this new location. 

“We will have a room with six to seven video game stations around the classroom — from arcade games to remote gaming to Wiis and things like that,” Akins said. “Everything that we are going to offer is going to be brand new to our kids… And the biggest takeaway from this is our kids are going to be able to say they have their own Boys & Girls Club that’s their safe space.” 

With this new location, each age group, from kindergartners to seniors in high school, will have their own rooms, which means there will be around 15 to 20 rooms in the new facility. 

Akins said children also will have access to a dance studio, music studio, full kitchen, tech lab and a full arts-and-crafts space. 

“They’ll be able to create their own T-shirts and their own websites,” Akins said with excitement. “I’m excited about them investing in their future and exposing them to some of the awesome things that they can do in the future.” 

The kids are just as excited as Akins for the new location to open. 

“When we go to other facilities that have some of the things that the new facility will have, they’re always amazed,” Akins said. “They’re always looking around, shocked at the game rooms and tech labs and college career rooms. Without them even saying that, you can see that they are excited about being in a space like that.” 

Although no opening date has been set yet, Akins said the club will be up and running by August, with construction scheduled to finish in July. 

“I want our kids in the community to get the full experience of being part of a Boys and Girls Club,” he said. “We want to be able to impact as many kids as we possibly can and give them a place where they feel safe and they can grow and have fun. This is going to be amazing for the community.”