After years of trying, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Miss-Lou Inc. finally won a $373,000 grant for after-school programs from the 21st Century Community Learning Center.

The grant is quite competitive &045; the Natchez club was one of only 34 organizations to receive one this year. What put us over the edge?

Local Boys & Girls Club officials believe it was the pledge of community support for the project, which will have activities after school at McLaurin and Morgantown schools.

No fewer than 17 organizations &045; from church youth and seniors groups to volunteer agencies to industries &045; have agreed to be partners for the &uot;Believe! Achieve!&uot; program. Members of the organizations and employees of the industries will be tutors, homework buddies or readers for the students who participate in the Boys & Girls Club activities.

That’s a great display of community support &045; and a great model for the rest of us. The help these volunteers provide for students in the afterschool program is help for our entire community &045; after all, these students are our future.

The Boys & Girls Club, in just a few short years, has really taken off. So far housed at the old Thompson School, the program has been steadily growing and now has an opportunity to take off in new directions &045; literally.

The 21st Century grant also led to new money to help boost activities at another site outside the county, a long-term goal of the Boys & Girls Club. Club officials hope one day to have satellite sites around the Miss-Lou.

We have high hopes for this new after-school program and the work that it can do, and we have especially high hopes for the community support.