The Boys & Girls Club change name and connect with mural

The Boys and Girls Club of Canada has changed their name to BGC.

The change in the name reflects the societal changes with gender identity, especially with youth.

CEO of BGC Foothills, Shirley Puttock explains;

"This is about not all boys and girls identifying as boys and girls.  All teens and youth, kids don't identify that way so, in order to open our doors for everybody the name needed to be changed. And I think it's a great initiative out of our national team."

That's not the only change with BGC.

BGC Foothills has updated their High River location with an indoor mural painted by the youth.

Twenty-four young people between the ages of 12 and 21 helped paint the jigsaw-type pieces for the mural with the wooden jigsaw pieces coming from students at Highwood high school while Old Navy sponsored the initiative covering all the costs.

BGC Foothills revealed the artwork on Saturday, April 23 with artists and dignitaries alike.

Foothills MP John Barlow and Livingstone-Macleod MLA Roger Reid were present for the unveiling.

(L to R): BGC Foothills CEO Shirley Puttock, Foothills MP John Barlow, BGC Foothills Board Chairperson Kelly Tuck, Livingstone-Macleod MLA Roger Reid

The mural itself was designed like a jigsaw puzzle where individual artists painted their own piece of the mural in keeping with the theme of connection.

Puttock says the kids really poured their hearts and minds into the project.

"It covers a whole wall at our High River club for this connections project. So, it's an art installation and the thought behind it was to get kids and youth together to feel connected physically and emotionally and put their deepest thoughts and come together."

And the only instructions the young artists had was to make it about equity, diversity, inclusion or any social issues that were important to them.

Puttock says the topics the youth chose reflect what's important to them.

"We have 'working together,' 'every child matters,' 'teamwork makes the dream work,' our rainbow pride, 'me too' movement, world peace...they're very aware of what's going on in the world and they're very concerned about it. So, for them to be able to put their emotions into this beautiful art project was very important."

Puttock says one of the bonuses about the project was it really helped connect the youth with one another, especially since the pandemic.

"Since they've been away from each other for so long, it was just a nice way to connect.  They've all become good friends and spent a lot of time together.  We're very proud of it and very proud of them."

Staff and board members of BGC Foothills