Dave Motsinger was a child in 1982 when he helped shovel dirt at the groundbreaking for the Boys Club on Long Run Road. This week, he grabbed a shovel with his daughter, Alexis, while revisiting the club to see extensive, $5.5 million renovations happening at the Boys & Girls Club.
His father, Dick Motsinger, was instrumental in getting the South Haven and Portage clubs built.
Dave Motsinger remembers playing ball at the Little League fields in South Haven before the new club was built. As a club member, he acquired “friendships galore.”
“You met someone and if it clicked, you’re playing basketball, soccer” and more, Motsinger said.
On Tuesday, he saw the progress on renovations at the South Haven club and reminisced about his fun there.
Alexis is a member of the Valparaiso club.
Frank Brunker joined the tour. Brunker started attending the club in 1989, sometimes walking there from Portage, so he could spend time with the woman he would eventually marry.
Brunker played ball in the gym with the gym director at the time, enjoying basketball, soccer and other sports.
“It did make me a better person. It taught me to treat people with the respect they deserve,” he said.
Stanley Rhodes, who joined at age 12 in 1985, learned to play pool at the club. “My first two years, I did nothing but come in here and played pool six hours a day, five days a week,” Rhodes said. “I have some talent and started here.”
He now plays pool in bars. Rhodes cherishes the friendships he developed because of joining the club, calling them “just like a brotherhood.”
Mike Jessen, president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Northwest Indiana, led them on a tour of the club. Or rather, he led them until they wandered off, reminiscing about different events happening in previously configured rooms in the building.
“It’s bringing back some heartfelt, impactful memories for them,” Jessen said. “We’ve served a lot of kids over four decades.”
Major construction for the renovations and addition at the club is expected to be complete in about four weeks, Jessen said. New furniture will be put in place next. “It will be ready, without question, by the start of the school year,” he promised.
The club has been closed since last summer, with sites operating at South Haven’s two elementary schools in the interim. “We have a wonderful relationship with Portage Township Schools,” Jessen said. Portage Township kids are bused to the Portage and South Haven clubs for free.
Before being closed for the renovations, the South Haven club served about 150 kids per day. Jessen hopes the club will serve 250 or more once it reopens.
About 2,500 square feet have been added, providing storage in the back to free up rooms for additional programming, as well as in front to provide additional security. Visitors to the club will have to be buzzed in, and there will be extra sets of doors as well.
“Anyone who wasn’t in the building previously will walk in and think it’s all brand new,” Jessen said.
The renovations include a new roof, HVAC system and plumbing. “All the mechanical things were of an age that it had to be replaced,” Jessen said.
The previous mini gym has been carved up into various rooms for programming. A sensory room has been created to create a calming environment for kids – or staff – who feel overwhelmed.
A little bit of expansion in the back of the building makes a big difference for the club, Jessen said. A minibus could be parked inside the long, narrow storage room if needed.
The renovated restrooms include sinks in an open area, outside the restrooms, to make it harder for kids to get in trouble. “It’s a small little touch that makes a lot of sense,” Jessen said.
The parking lot is new, and the club’s footprint is bigger. A vacant lot was acquired to provide drainage space for the club as well as an additional outdoor recreation area. After Indiana American Water removed a water tower that was no longer needed, that land was donated to the club as well.
Jessen said some people wondered why the Portage and South Haven clubs weren’t merged with a large new facility built along U.S. 6. “If we were to build a building on, say, Route 6, you’d lose that neighborhood continuity,” he said. Where the South Haven building is located now, kids can walk or ride bikes safely to get there, Jessen said, although sidewalks aren’t in place throughout the massive subdivision.
“It’s such a unique community,” he said. With roughly 8,500 residents, he believes South Haven is the most populous unincorporated community in Indiana.
Now that the $5.5 million capital campaign is entering the public phase, hoping to raise the final $1.5 million, the nonprofit has some challenges. Unlike Valparaiso, where the new club costs $9.5 million, South Haven doesn’t have many well-heeled donors or many corporations that can contribute.
About 70% of the kids here qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, said Denise Koebcke, vice president of philanthropy at Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Northwest Indiana.
The club is partnering with the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana to provide food lockers onsite. Food Bank clients will be able to enter a code to pick up needed groceries from an assigned locker, Jessen said.
The South Haven club is one of 10 facilities in Northwest Indiana and will be the fifth to be new or renovated in recent years.
The Cedar Lake club was built a year earlier but didn’t have as much wear and tear. “This one had been more used and abused,” Jessen said. “We’ve still got plenty of work to do on the others.”
In fall 2025, the organization hopes to break ground on a new club in Merrillville, to be built behind the Dean and Barbara White Community Center.
Four women in Hartford, Connecticut, founded the first Boys Club in 1860 after deciding boys needed something to keep them off the streets. Girls were added in 1990.
“Imagine the streets today,” Jessen said. “There’s much, much more need than there was in 1860.”
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
