Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004 | 8:20 a.m.
It was approaching dinnertime Friday evening, and Henderson's Boys and Girls Club John Kish Center was fairly bursting with activity.
Little boys argued playfully over their game at one of the billiards tables. Other children played board games in twos and threes.
One of the center's teen assistants handed a deck of cards to a pair of little girls looking for something to do.
"You can play Go Fish, War or Speed," the older boy said, and the girls retreated happily to a table.
But learning to play a mean game of Go Fish is only a side benefit. To know what Boys and Girls Clubs activities teach, look past the pool tables and read the walls.
"Your temper is like a fire. It gets very destructive when it gets out of control," says a poster mounted behind the game tables.
Over in the gymnasium, Executive Director Brenda Close and a few of her staff members were putting the final touches on information tables set up for Friends and Family Night.
The two-hour event Friday was a time when parents could learn about the center's programs, enter drawings for door prizes and tour the center that has been serving Henderson-area children for 50 years.
"Tie your shoes, honey," Close said to a tiny blond-haired girl who peeked into the gym to see what was going on.
"I do, but they keep coming untied," the little one said.
Close knows by name most, if not all, of the 150 children who each day visit the club at 401 Drake St. (east of Boulder Highway and Lake Mead Parkway). She's been its director for four years, leaving behind a retail career to work with children.
"You're here for the kids, not for the money," Close said. "Here, I just feel good every day."
Programs include sports teams, arts and crafts and help with homework. Another service is offered to children whose working parents drop them off before and after school. Children receive breakfast, a ride to school, a ride to the center after the school, help with homework and dinner.
Charles Irvin, 25, works with children who attend the center's Open Door program, in which kids just show up on their own after school.
"I grew up here," Irvin said. "I started coming here as a junior in high school, and I just stayed."
Irvin, a college student studying to teach secondary education, said games and programs aren't the draw.
"It's the one-on-one and the positive interaction with an adult," he said. "It's a smile on the face of someone you see when you walk in the door, and they ask how your day went."
Building confidence and leadership skills are the club's heart and soul. Close told of a group of 10- to 12-year-olds who are taking care of feral cats that live behind the center. They are learning about taking care of pets and taking responsibility.
Kittens go directly up for adoption at a no-kill shelter. The children will trap the adult cats, have them spayed or neutered and return them to the center's grounds. The children will feed them from a safe distance.
"A person's true character is revealed by what they do when no one is watching," says a poster mounted in a darkened room that on Friday night was filled with peals of laughter.
Children were happily watching "Shrek 2" in a place that felt like home.
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