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Our History
Our Early Years
The original site of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Corridor has a ton of history! From 1910 to 1954, this was the site of St James Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1954 the church sold the land to the YMCA who converted the building into the Ellis Community Center. Between 1958 and 1980, the YMCA added a teen center, a gym, a pool, locker rooms, and weight rooms. In August, 1990 the YMCA announced it would be closing the Ellis Branch. The Ellis Community Center was near and dear to many who had used this building and made so many memories there, so in December, 1991 the Friends of the Ellis Community Center
reopened the Ellis Community Center. Finally, on November 16, 1993, a Boys & Girls Club came to Cedar Rapids when the Ellis Community Center chartered with Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
When first opening its doors as the Ellis Community Center Boys & Girls Club, the organization held recreational sports leagues, gave the community access to the pool and weight rooms. In 1997 the pool was closed and the Club's sole focus changed to serving underprivileged youth in the Ellis neighborhood. It was then that the Club officially became the Boys & Girls Club of Cedar Rapids. At that time the Club served on average 45 youth each day.
In 2004 the Boys & Girls Club of Cedar Rapids partnered with First Congregational Church on 17th Street SE to open the South Unit and serve youth on the east side of Cedar Rapids.
The 2008 Flood
In 2008, like so many homes and businesses in Downtown Cedar Rapids, the original site of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Cedar Rapids was destroyed by a major flood. Many of our families were displaced during this time and then for our Club members to have their second home destroyed as well, turned their entire worlds into chaos. Many Club members helped clean up the Club, their home away from home, in hopes of putting it back together again and gaining some sense of normalcy. Unfortunately all was lost and the building was eventually taken down in 2012.
It was at this time that the Club changed its philosophy from "How do we get the kids to the Club?" to "How do we get the Club to the kids?" This new philosophy brought us to Echo Hill Church in Mound View Neighborhood, the Salvation Army and Taylor Elementary School. With the addition of these three sites we now had sites in all four quadrants of Cedar Rapids.
In 2011, thanks to the generosity of Mercy Medical Center, the Boys & Girls Clubs' Administrative Office found a new home, at the Sister Mary Lawrence Center located at 6th Street and 4th Avenue SE. In 2012 we opened a fifth Club at Olivet Presbyterian Church. In 2013 we closed The Salvation Army Unit and reopened at Hoover Elementary School.
Growth Across the Corridor
Fall 2016
We partnered with
Phi Kappa Psi (who has a national tie to Boys & Girls Clubs of America) They offered to provide volunteers on a weekly basis to bring a Boys & Girls Club to Iowa City.
The Club first opened for teens at South East Junior High for two years. In the Fall of 2018 we moved to Faith Academy where we currently serve elementary age youth.
Summer 2018
We came together with the Marion Youth Coalition, a group of over 20 non-profit agencies that wanted to address programming needs during out of school time for middle school youth in the Marion community. On September 3, 2019 we officially opened a Boys & Girls Club in Marion where we are providing daily programming in the old Marion Home School building, now known as the Marion Youth Center.
Name Change
In January, 2020, with our growth into Iowa City and Marion, with approval from our Board of Directors we revealed our name change to Boys & Girls Clubs of the Corridor.
