The Boys and Girls Club of Smackover-Norphlet will be offering free haircuts to children in the community ahead of school starting on August 24.
“The Boys and Girls Club did it a long time ago back when I went there,” said Anthony Farris-King, director of the Smackover-Norphlet Club. “My barber asked me about it; any time the community wants to help out or do something, I will very rarely say no.”
Haircuts will be available to any school-aged children entering Kindergarten through 12th grade. The haircut event is scheduled for August 23 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Smackover-Norphlet Club, located at 1406 Lisbon Road.
“(Damien Johns, Farris-King’s barber) got a few barbers together, and hopefully we’ll be able to get some beauticians to come for the little girls,” Farris-King said. “It’s just going to be come and be served.”
The haircut event will also give the Farris-King and other BGC staff the opportunity to showcase the new Club in Smackover, which opened in June in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While they have held summer camp there, occupancy has been limited due to restrictions set by the Arkansas Department of Health and governor, so this will be one of the first chances everyone will have to experience the Club.
“We’ll have the barbershop located in one of our rooms here at the Smackover Club, and then we’ll open up one of our other rooms and kind of rotate so the kids will have a chance to play and experience the Boys and Girls Club,” Farris-King said. “So this way they won’t be just sitting around waiting for their turn.”
Registration is also currently open for the BGC’s Prime Time and on-site after school programs.
Prime Time, available to first through sixth graders at all of El Dorado’s elementary schools, as well as Washington Middle School and in the Smackover-Norphlet school district for the first time this year, brings BGC staff to students at their schools to give them homework help and organize structured activities.
The on-site after school program is similar, with students getting snacks when they arrive at their designated BGC facility (the Northwest Unit or the Teen Center in El Dorado or the Smackover-Norphlet Unit in Smackover), doing their homework and then having some time to play and relax before they head home.
An information meeting is scheduled about after school programs for August 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Northwest Unit at 1201 N. West Ave. in El Dorado. The BGC requests that those who attend the August 11 meeting or stop by the facility wear a face mask, per Governor Asa Hutchinson’s mask mandate.
Registration for the Prime Time program is open now. To register, email Farris-King at [email protected] or stop by the BGC El Dorado facility on North West Avenue to fill out a registration form in the foyer. To learn more, visit eldoradokids.org.