Boys, Girls Club in Abbeville has new leader

Nearly 300 kids are expected to arrive Monday morning, ready to get the summer started at the Vermilion Boys & Girls Club.
The summer program begins this week at the Vermilion Boys & Girls Club, Rodney Simon Unit, located in Abbeville at A.A. Comeaux Park. Summer program hours are Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. There will be new unit director to greet the kids, but it is a familiar face.
Roland Levine, an Abbeville native, takes over for former unit director Brian Ford, who has moved up to the Boys & Girls Club central office in Lafayette. Levine worked as program director at the Rodney Unit for the previous nine years.
“The kids know me,” Levine said. “I worked under Brian and he taught me a lot.
“I think it will be a good transition.”
Levine has been involved with the club in Abbeville since high school.
“That was my first job,” Levine said, speaking to the Abbeville Kiwanis Club last week. “They gave me my first job out of high school. I worked there for five years. Then I left to go to New Orleans for a few years to go to school.
“I came back and they gave me another job at the club here in Abbeville.”
Levine worked under then unit director Thomas Falgout.
“He was my mentor,” Levine said. “He kept me out of trouble. He would always have me doing something, even when the club was closed.
“At the same time I was doing that, all of my friends were getting into trouble.”
Levine can easily speak to the merits of the club.
“I am so grateful for everything that it provided me,” Levine said. “I have been involved with the Boys & Girls Club since I was 12 years old.
“I am 36 now.”
Levine spoke about some of the programs the club provides that help shape those who attend. The programs are indeed fun, but offer far greater lessons.
“We have five core areas that we focus on,” Levine explained. “We have education and career development, arts, health and life skills, sports and fitness, and we have character and leadership. We cover a lot of ground in those five core areas. For example, when you are in arts and crafts, you are not just making things. We have performing arts and image makers, where kids go and take photos.
“We do everything that we can.”
Levine does face somewhat of a challenge in making it all happen. During Ford’s time as unit director, he had Levine as program director. Levine at this time has no program director.
“I have a temp staff that we hire,” Levine said before adding with a laugh, “I don’t have a program director. Brian could go in his office and do paper work and I would take care of the programs. I will now have to try to stay on top of the programs and still try to check E-mails and things like that.
“As of right now, I am by myself, but we are going to make it work.”