Published: August 26, 2008 10:12 pm         

Heaton emphasizes after-school activities

GOP legislature hopeful supports maintaining funding for programs

TERRE HAUTE — A candidate for the Indiana House of Representatives and a member of the Indiana State University basketball team that went to the NCAA finals in 1979 is stressing the importance of after-school programs offered by the Terre Haute Boys and Girls Clubs.

Republican candidate Bob Heaton, who is running for Indiana’s 46th House district, said he supports maintaining or increasing state funding for after-school programs offered by the Boys and Girls Clubs.

“That’s what it boils down to – serving the kids,” said Heaton, who attended a basketball camp at the then-Terre Haute Boys Club in the 1970s and is now on the Boys and Girls Club board of directors. “There is a great need for after-school programming in our community,” he said.

Around 30 kids receive free after-school tutoring through the Terre Haute Boys and Girls Club, said club executive director Jimmy Smith. The tutoring is funded by a state program called Mitch’s Kids, which started in 2006 and is designed to help low-income and minority children improve their math and reading skills.

The Terre Haute Boys and Girls Club serves around 3,700 kids per year and has an annual budget of $470,000, Smith said. Among other things, the club maintains basketball gyms, learning centers, a game room as well as two baseball diamonds and a football field on the city’s near northeast side.

State funding for the club amounts to around $20,000 per year and comes from Mitch’s Kids as well as from the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation program, Smith said.

“We’re looking right now for funding” from state lawmakers, Smith said, adding that after- school tutoring programs are “very important” to kids in the Wabash Valley. Smith, who took the reins at the Boys and Girls Club in 1998, played basketball at ISU from 1975-78.

The Terre Haute Boys and Girls Club, which was founded in 1908, is a United Way agency. With a membership of 2,300, it is one of the largest single Boys and Girls Clubs in the Midwest, Smith said. The club moved to its present location at 220 N. 3rd St. in 1922, according to its Web site, which is available on-line at www.thbgc.org.

Heaton, a native of Cory who runs a financial services company in Terre Haute, is running for the 46th district seat against incumbent Democrat Vern Tincher. Tincher, a retired 22-year veteran of the Indiana State Police, was first elected to the state legislature in 1982 and has been re-elected every two years except in 1994 and 2002.

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.