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Safe Harbor Marion County Boys and Girls Club offers a positive program for at-risk youths
BY CARLTON REESE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RALPH DEMILIO
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ometimes the walk home from school entails unsolicited engagement with nefarious characters who have nothing to offer but drugs and a negative world view. The walk may even include the occasional sound of a gunshot. Many times, the walk home from school is the easy part, with an abusive adult waiting at the end of the journey. Such scenarios happen every day all over the country and, fortunately, not all are relegated to sad endings.
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| MAY 2021 | OCALAMAGAZINE.COM
For many youths age 6-18, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America become a port in a storm, a place to avoid many of the pitfalls that plague disadvantaged kids in this country. A safe haven that also acts as a den of learning as well as good, clean fun makes the club perhaps the most important part of the day in steering one’s life through troubled waters. At the Boys and Girls Clubs of Marion County, the tradition of guiding and men-
