Boys and Girls club awarded for arts excellence

The Lindsey O’Brien Kesling Performing Arts Program at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Bloomington received the 2013 BGCA merit award for program excellence in the arts.

The primary mission of the Boys and Girls Club is to support youth to reach their highest potential by offering creative and performing arts opportunities.

The comprehensive arts program comprises monthly student performances in the areas of hip hop, dance, choir, violin and impromptu comedy. The program also offers career exploration workshops with artists and dance explorations, as well as scholarships for top performers.

“The main goal is to make it serve as a model to other clubs in the United States,” founder of LOKPAP Dot Kesling said. “We want a program like this to ultimately be in every single club in the country, because it provides opportunities to children by exposing them to performances. Children that participate are given a lot of opportunities to develop.”

There are generally 10 to 14 students in the program during any given semester. Participants are given professional training experience and made to perform in front of sometimes hundreds of people.

“It shows the kids how big the world is and what they could strive for,” said Ly Wilder, choir instructor at the club. “Kids are also interviewed and they learn how to speak with people, which is a great skill to learn early in life.”

Wilder is also a lecturer of jazz at IU and is the founder of Syncopation, a show choir for Bloomington youth.

LOKPAP was established in the fall of 2011 after the death of Lindsey O’Brien, who was a student at IU. Kesling, founder of the program and Lindsey’s mother, said
Lindsey loved little children. Kesling said she contacted Matthew Searle, program director at the Bloomington Boys and Girls Club, to inform the club of Lindsey’s death.

After learning more about Lindsey and her love of dance, performing arts seemed to be the best way to keep her memory alive.

“Lindsey was a dancer, so I had an idea for this performing arts program,” Searle said. “There have been 12 performances since the fall of 2011. Our classes here run eight weeks each semester.”

The program’s consistency from year to year has helped some students to move into artistic opportunities. Wilder said the instructors help the kids learn popular songs and teach them dance moves to coordinate with the song.

“This increases their physical awareness, quality of presentation as well as boosts their confidence,” she said. “It also increases their specific musical and choreography skills.”

The first two LOKAP scholarships were awarded in May 2012. A scholarship awarded through LOKAP changed one boy’s life, Kesling said. The violin and keyboard lessons he took disciplined him to take out the time and practice playing the instrument.

She said the program intends to grant a scholarship April 25 this year to a young boy and a girl that are top participants and go to advanced performing arts camps or classes.

“We’re grateful for the national recognition and for the fact that people understand this wonderful work,” Wilder said.