Rosewood Boys and Girls Club on track to open next year

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - The Boys and Girls Club on the Eastside has made progress since its groundbreaking event earlier this year.

“The last new facility we built for kids was in 1980,” said Randy Cooper, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Wichita Falls.

Over 40 years later, the Boys and Girls Club is building a bigger and better facility with construction underway. Since their announcement months ago, the new building’s bones have come together.

“Three basic things that we want to do when we open our doors sometime in the Fall of 2024 is support academics success, support healthy lifestyles, and support the good character traits of young people,” said Cooper.

The Rosewood Community Center and Boys and Girls Club will be the second largest boys and girls club facility in Wichita Falls.

“Open up a lot of avenues for the kids there and they can see other things happening. I want these kids to see that it’s a better way of living and it’s a lot of artists over there, there’s a lot of people in gymnastics over there,” Larry Nelson, Councilmen for District 2.

The center will impact kids like 12-year-old J’Lonne Carroll. We interviewed Carroll back in March during the groundbreaking event.

“Reporter: What changes are you hoping that this brings to other kids like you? Carroll: A lot, I hope that everyone has fun. It keeps us safe and we participate in a lot of things there,” said Carroll.

The building will have 24-hour security and one of the biggest gyms for the boys and girls club within the surrounding area.

“We’ve had a presence on the East side since 1955 and and part of a consolidation process was to build a structure that can serve all the kids in this qua rant and there is definitely a need here and an undeserved to open this facility,” said Cooper.

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