POST FALLS - At 7 a.m., the Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County comes to life.

A few kids rub the sleep out of their eyes as they walk through the doors, others run past them to shove their belongings into cubbies and hightail it into the gym to shoot hoops.

By 7:15, the pitter-patter of little and not-so-little feet intermingles with sounds of giggling, conversation, the echoes of basketballs bouncing in the gym and the smack of billiard balls colliding.

"There's something going on all the time," said Tabitha Kraack, director of operations at the Boys & Girls Club Jordan Johnson Center in Post Falls.

For $20 a school year and $20 a summer, children from kindergarten to 12th grade are welcome to be club members. A $175 early morning summer program is also offered for members who stay all day.

"I usually have to go because my mom has work, and I think it's a really fun place," said Alexis Austin, 10, of Post Falls. "I've made a lot of new friends this summer."

The 11,000-square-foot facility provides a safe, supervised venue for youths to engage in positive, social activities as well as complete schoolwork. A gym is used for sports and games, the teen room allows teens and 'tweens much-appreciated space, the education room is used for "Power Hour" study sessions, the grassy fields are home to outside play and the art room offers a world of possibilities for big imaginations.

"There's a lot of glitter and paint everywhere," Kraack said. "This room's usually always packed full."

The center is nestled between the Post Falls Library and several schools. Almost 800 kids are enrolled in the summer program, with more than 250 attending each day. The demand for a facility such as the Boys and Girls Club is rising, which can be seen in annually growing enrollment numbers.

Catherine Tamasonis of Post Falls is the kitchen manager at Seltice Elementary, where club members eat breakfast and lunch.

"They stagger in because we don't have enough room for all of them at one time," she said. "There's a high demand for this kind of a program for our kids in this community ... they have activities, they go outside, they do stuff. They're not just sitting idle. I know that, because I see them when I drive by to go home. I see them outside and they walk over here every day ... I think it's great."

Executive director Ryan Davis said the conversation about opening a center in Coeur d'Alene has begun.

"It's very, very much in the initial stages," he said, adding that Lakes Magnet Middle School has been discussed as a possible location.

"We determined that there might be some potential, because clubs are most effective when they're neighborhood based," he said.

While Sorensen Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities does run an after-school program during the school year, it has a smaller capacity and is closed during summer.

Boys & Girls Club overview

The club is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the summer and 2:30-6 p.m. during the school year. A daily schedule includes walks to Seltice Elementary School, assemblies, Club Time activities, age group rotations, a snack and social/free time. Field trips happen every day, as well as learning projects, such as instructing members how to change a tire or bringing in Post Falls Police officers to teach about bike riding safety.

"People don't necessarily understand on a day-to-day basis what takes place," Davis said. "We're not a daycare, we're not a babysitting service, we're youth development. Later today, we've got our teams learning how to change oil in a car. Those kinds of youth development things, all the way down to trying to take S.T.E.M. projects and make them fun."

The members

"I want all kids to come here and not feel like they're not going to be judged because of their background," Kraack said. "They don't have the best shoes, the best clothing, but they can still come here and be a kid and have fun, and the staff treats everyone equally no matter who they are."

Kraack said something she enjoys is seeing kids who don't normally interact playing together and enjoying each others' company.

"You see them playing foosball together, you see them playing a game together, you see them playing dodgeball as a team," she said. "That is what I really love, is that the club brings together kids from all walks of life, and you just see some cool things happen."

For the majority of the day, all ages mingle. From 12:45-3 p.m., the kids are split into groups according to age/grade. The club presently has a large amount of fourth-graders, such as Ryen Sexton, 9, of Post Falls, who attends the club with her little brother Liam, 7.

"I like that you get to choose what activity you get to do," she said.

Evan Bradshaw, 9, of Post Falls, has been going to the Boys and Girls Club since he was in second grade. He goes just about every day and really enjoys playing kickball.

"It's a really fun place. You'd like it," he said.

There is zero tolerance for bullying at the club and the staff encourages members to practice good sportsmanship.

"Teaching kids how to win, lose, those little small things that are not taught as much as they used to be," Davis said.

The members are taught to respect themselves, staff, club equipment and each other.

"It is molding them into how they're going to act in the future, when they get older," said staff member Justin Ewing of Blanchard. "It could be like respecting police officers, respecting public places, other people that are in their work environment or their schools, and how they treat themselves around other people. For them to grow that mentality or their morals now, they have practice."

The staff

Staff members are like summer camp counselors, prompting innovative games, defusing heated situations, applying bandages and constantly motivating the kids. They are all CPR and first aid certified and must be reliable so the club can maintain a consistent crew for the kids to bond with and trust.

Cenedra Witherspoon, 15, of Post Falls, is a paid staff intern who has been a member for three years. She is also the Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County 2014 Youth of the Year, an honorable accolade earned through service to the club and her community. She loves working with the kids and works to be a good role model for them.

"I just like making them have a better day," she said. "If they start out having a bad morning, or something made them upset, I like trying to help them feel better and get back to playing with other kids."

Madison Whaley, 9, of Coeur d'Alene, just started going to the club this summer.

"I like all the staff," she said. "They're very nice to me. They're very caring for all the kids and when I go home I really don't want to go home, I want to stay and play longer."

Ewing said he feels it is important to foster those positive relationships with the kids because they will remember them when they look back on their childhoods.

"This is a huge time for them to grow and to gain their own morals and their own ideals of what to live by, like their own standards," he said. "I want to be a teacher, so it's been a really cool opportunity to really learn a lot. Even for me to be a father someday, it's taught me a lot."

Coming up

- The Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees will hold a hearing at 5 p.m. Monday to consider filing a petition seeking judicial confirmation of a proposed ground lease of property at Lakes Magnet Middle School to the Boys & Girls Club to be used for the nonprofit to build a Coeur d'Alene facility.

The public is encouraged to participate in the hearing that will be held in the meeting room of the Midtown Center, 1505 N. Fifth St.