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Harold Arledge with boys at club site
Boys’ Club
lends hand
Harold Arledge is a man with his
hand out. He'll take a donation of
money or time from anyone willing to
give. Last year he took close to $30,000
from Griffin and Spalding County
residents, businesses and industries.
He’s the executive director of the
Boys’ Club of Griffin and Spalding
County. The money he takes is used to
help develop the lives of 200 boys each
year.
The Boys’ Club of Griffin is one of
more than 1,500 in the United States, all
members of the Boys’ Club of America.
Each is run by an “active” board of
directors and is financed on a local
basis.
The local club is not only independent
of the national organization financially,
but it also determines its own ob
jectives and the means to obtain them.
“Each club deals with its own local
problems,” said Arledge.
“A club in New York City faces
different problems from ours, but we
share the same goal —a more
productive environment for our youth."
The Boys’ Club of Griffin is located at
2 sites, one on the grounds of East
Griffin Elementary School and the
other off East Solomon street at 121 Leo
street. Their objectives are to provide
experiences for boys who would not
have the opportunity under normal
circumstances.
“We try to offer the boys a complete
program,” said Arledge, “including
social experiences, vocational training,
educational activities, crafts and hobby
work and physical education or
recreation activities.
“A well balanced variety including
activities from each of these categories
goes into the program schedules. For
example, in the first phase of our fall
schedule we are holding tutoring
classes and offer reading help. Football
and bowling are programmed and
others include: karate, arts and crafts,
woodshop, movies, Junior Staff, social
club, camping club and Christmas
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA -
Partly cloudy and mild through Friday
with low tonight in the low 50s and high
Friday in the mid 70s.
LOCAL WEATHER — Low this
morning at the Spalding Forestry Unit
47, high Wednesday 70.
projects.
“These are just a few of the activities
we offer. The programs differ from
season to season and as the boys’ in
terests change, so do our programs.”
The local program also includes
counseling. “We become involved with
the families,” said Arledge. “If there
are problems, we try to help solve
them.”
Arledge and his staff of one unit
director, 2 counselors and a secretary
work closely with school personnel.
“Working with the boys’ teachers and
getting to know the members of their
families gives us a good picture of what
is going on if there is a problem,” said
Arledge.
“We are planning more activities
which will involve the parents to a
greater extent,” he added.
“I haven’t been in the organization
long enough to see any tremendous
results of our efforts,” said Arledge.
“I guess if I’m around another 5 or 6
years I’ll see a few of our kids mature
and then the results will show.
“I have seen some great changes in
attitudes though. Some kid will come
to us with a really lousy attitude and if
things go well, before you know it, he’s
helping out, and getting involved.”
Arledge operates his Boys’ Club sites
25 hours each week during the school
year and longer during the summer,
with special hours on holidays. He
spends a lot of time soliciting public
interest and funds, too.
He runs the club with an annual
budget of $30,000 which pays for his
salary and one staff member, plus
utility bills and other operating costs.
He receives about one-third of this from
the United Fund. The rest must be
raised as donations.
Arledge deals with numerous
childhood problems and a multitude of
inconveniences on a daily basis.
He was born in Shelby, N. C. and
attended Gardner Webb College, a
small Baptist college in Boiling
Springs, N. C. There, he received a
degree in social science.
During his final year in college, he
worked for 3 months as a field sports
director in a Boy Scout camp, when he
discovered that he enjoyed working
with youngsters.
In March, 1972 he took a job as
program director of a Boys’ Club in
Shelby. While working there, he met his
wife, Sherry, who was studying
physical education at Gardner Webb.
(Continued on page 30.)
GRIFFIN
DAI
Daily Since 1872
Grand jury notes
crowding in schools
A Spalding County Grand Jury
committee observed overcrowding in
Griffin High buildings and in all but 3
elementary schools during an in
spection of the school system here this
week.
Their findings were included in
presentments Wednesday.
The 3 elementary schools not
crowded, the committee said, were
Third Ward, West Griffin and East
Griffin.
“On the high school campus we noted
that in all cases there was an extremely
overcrowded condition. The field house
was extremely dirty and we noted that
in the boys and girls shower areas there
was no privacy and the facilities totally
inadequate,” the committee wrote.
The committee found Spalding Junior
High Units I, II and 111 well maintained.
It inspected the old Hawkes Library
building and found it in good condition.
The building has been converted for
administrative use.
The committee said lunchrooms in
schools were clear and efficiently run.
Griffin High Principal Tascar
Williams told the committee “the drug
problem is still with us and is con
stantly being watched.”
The grand jury urged citizens to vote
in the November school bond election
but made no recommendation on yes or
no voting.
The entire grand jury inspected the
Spalding County jail with Sheriff
Dwayne Gilbert taking members on a
tour.
He told them of plans to renovate the
building. The jurors commended the
sheriff and the Spalding County
Commissioners on their long range
planning and funding of the im
provements.
In other business, the jurors ap
pointed Mrs. Emily Claxton, Wayne H.
Brown and Mrs. W. Z. Martin to the
Spalding County Equalization Board.
Alternates named were Arthur
Hammond, Jr., Mrs. Sue Ogletree and
W. C. Futral, Jr.
The jurors recommended to Judge
Andrew Whalen, Jr., the following
appointments:
Jerome Huckaby for notary public
and ex-officio Justice of the Peace for
Line Creek District.
Julian Jones for notary public and ex
officio Justice of the Peace for Akin
District.
Judge John O. Clements was ap
pointed judge of the Small Claims
Court.
$5,000 suit
for paddling
dismissed
AMERICUS, Ga. (AP) -
Teacher Karen Griffin does not
have to pay civil damages for
spanking an 11-year-old pupil
who chose five licks of the
paddle rather than writing a
sentence 100 times as punish
ment for a classroom disturb
ance.
That was the verdict of a
Sumter County jury which
Wednesday dismissed a civil
suit seeking $5,000 from Miss
Griffin for paddling Joseph
Emory Duke.
The suit was brought by the
boy’s parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Bobby Wesley Duke, who
claimed the paddling was ex
cessive.
Miss Griffin, a music teacher
in the Americus public schools,
tesified that she warned the pu
pils in the class three times to
stop their disturbances.
When they persisted, she said,
she gave them a choice of five
licks of the paddle or writing a
sentence 100 times. Joseph
Emory and 11 of the 30 pupils
chose the paddle.
Two members of the city
school system testified that the
spanking was not excessive.
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Thursday Afternoon, October 6, 1977
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Supt. D. B. Christie congratulates Mrs. Stein on honor.
Mrs. Stein Teacher of Year
An eighth grade English teacher who
thinks young people should be allowed
more and more responsibility today
was named Teacher of the Year in the
Griffin-Spalding School System. -
She is Mrs. Virginia Stein and was
awarded the honor by Supt. D. B.
Christie this morning.
She will represent the system in
Georgia Teacher of the Year com
petition this week in Atlanta.
PTA shedding
little old ladies image
President opposes
violence on tv
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - The
Parent-Teacher Association is shed
ding its “little old ladies in tennis
shoes” image and attacking television
because it feels TV sex and violence is
dangerous to children, says the
president of the Georgia PTA.
Iris Mosley said the national PTA
declared war on TV violence in 1975.
“Television violence has been
X
reduced,” said Mrs. Mosley, but in
many instances it has been replaced by
sex, such as in the controversial new
program “SOAP.”
“The average youngster has watched
4,000 hours of TV by the time he or she
starts first grade,” she said. “By high
school graduation, a typical student
will have spent about 15,000 hours
watching television as opposed to about
11,000 hours in the classroom.
“It’s frightening to think about what
it is teaching our children,” she con
tinued. “Never in our history has there
been a medium as penetrating and
persuasive as television.”
Mrs. Mosley said the 208,000-member
Georgia PTA also is concerned that 75
Mrs. Stein said there are many
positive aspects in public education
today. She said she feels teachers
remaining in public education are truly
dedicated to the best interests of their
children.
She said she had unlimited con
fidence in young people.
Mrs. Stein earned a BA degree with a
major in English and minors in French,
per cent of high school graduates in the
state can’t read above a fourth-grade
level. She attributes the situation in
part to television replacing reading as
the primary source of entertainment in
many homes.
The national PTA has placed
television “on probation” for its
allegedly adverse affects on children.
The probationary period ends Jan. 1
and, unless the networks clean up their
programing by then, the PTA is ready
to take stronger action, Mrs. Mosley
said.
The action could include lawsuits and
boycotts of advertisers, programs and
local stations.
“We hope that it doesn’t come down
to having to boycott,” she said. “But
that’s what we’ll do if that’s what it
takes.”
Since July, the PTA has been holding
public hearings across the nation to
discuss television violence. As proof of
the strong interest, Mrs. Mosley said,
500 persons asked to testify at the
Atlanta hearing.
Vol. 105 No. 237
psychology and social studies at
Jacksonville University in 1968.
She earned a master of education
degree in secondary English at Georgia
State in 1976.
She taught eighth and ninth grade
English for 9 years in Florida and in
Griffin. She has been chairman of the
English Department for 4 years at
Spalding Junior High 11.
People
••• and things
Birds scattering in all directions from
backyard feeder when squirrel invites
himself to lunch.
Elementary student, school books
under arm, looking wistfully at lake on
cool morning.
Minister humming “Whistle While
You Work” while walking briskly
downtown.
The Country Parson
by Frank Clark
“I wonder why parents wno
don’t read anything Insist that
their children learn how.”