Boys & Girls’ Club of Parkersburg Director of Resource Development Candice Black and CEO Darlene Murphy appeared before the Wood County Commission on Monday to discuss what the Club has been doing and for the commission to consider providing funding to the organization while Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard listens. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — The Boys & Girls Club of Parkersburg is seeking financial support from the Wood County Commission.

Club CEO Darlene Murphy and Director of Resource Development Candice Black appeared before the commission Monday to discuss what the club has been doing as well as some needs to be addressed.

“We have been in this community for over 60 years,” Murphy said. “All of the kids we have come for $30 a year and they get all kinds of programs that we provide.”

That happens through financial contributions from throughout the community, grants and other funding sources.

Murphy had worked as the director of the club for over two years before becoming CEO. At that time they were providing services to 89 kids. Now, the club provides services for 227 kids a day.

“We are serving more of the community … but we have to go out and find more money and more resources,” she said.

When she started, the club was serving 16 schools in Wood County. Now it is serving all of the schools in Wood County, except for two (Lubeck and Greenmont, while Williamstown is being served in Marietta).

“We do have support from Wood County Schools and a lot of good community support (from the City of Vienna and the City of Parkersburg), but we have a number of schools that are out in the county that are outside of city limits.”

A site has opened in Mineral Wells Elementary and the club has being providing services at Blennerhassett Elementary/Middle School as well as Kanawha School.

“We wanted to see if we could become a part of the county’s budget in some way to be able to support the Boys & Girls Club,” Murphy said.

So far this year, they have looked at the possibility of cutting some programs if they cannot bring in additional funding to help support what they have.

“We are doing everything we can to bring funds in, because any time we open a site and are serving families and then have to take it away it can impact people in a negative way,” Murphy said. “We would like to expand services in some areas, but that takes funding.”

Officials said the county used to provide some funding to the Boys and Girls Club, but has not in the past few years.

Commissioner Jimmy Colombo commended them for the programs they offer to help with school work and more as well as meals provided to many of the kids.

With the kids on Spring Break this week, the club will be providing breakfast and lunch to their kids this week out of its own funding.

Colombo said commissioners will review the club’s request and see what can be done.

Wood County Commissioner Jim Hamric asked about what circumstances have brought more kids to the Boys and Girls Club of Parkersburg for services, which Murphy said was the club being able to expand services into the community at different locations. The local club is running four vans for services and Wood County Schools is providing bus service from five schools.

Black said prior to that the only bus service was from Jefferson School.

Murphy said the State of Ohio provides funding to Boys & Girls Clubs while the state of West Virginia does not.

The officials from the Boys & Girls Club talked about working with the kids on healthy habits, workforce development, character and leadership skills, providing tutoring and more.

“We are truly a resource for youth development,” Black said.

The Boys & Girls Club of Parkersburg did not request a specific amount of funding.

Colombo asked Murphy to submit a formal request and include an amount they might like to have, but to be “flexible” in their request as the county was also going to have to be flexible in considering it.

The commission recently approved a $31.388 million budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which is slated to begin in July. County officials said they didn’t provide funding to a lot of outside agencies in this budget.

They will look at what is being asked for and make a consideration.

Wood County Commission President Blair Couch was absent during Monday’s meeting.

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com