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EDEN —You have to get off the beaten path to find the Eden Boys & Girls Club.

Maybe that’s why I’d never been there until a couple of weeks ago.

I went to the club, which is on Harris Street a block south of Washington Street, to write a story about a healthy-lifestyle program that the club offers after school.

While I was there, I ended up bumping into my past — or perhaps I should say, my children’s past.

Cathy Cook is the program director .

When I moved to Eden more than 20 years ago, she was my daughter’s first teacher.

Each morning, I lined up behind other cars in front of Leaksville United Methodist Church in Eden where Cook taught preschool.

It was my daughter’s first school experience — one in which she learned about numbers, letters and show-and-tell, as well as the big lessons: sharing, making friends and getting along with others.

In just a few days, we’ll be getting out the ornaments for the Christmas tree, and somewhere among them will be one made in that 3-year-old preschool class.

Thanks to Cook, my daughter had a good introduction to formal education.

But the coincidences didn’t stop with Cook.

Zack Long is the club’s athletics director.

Long was about 14 or 15 when he moved into a house across the street from mine. My house had one thing his did not: a basketball goal .

Coming over to shoot hoops meant putting up with my son, a preschooler back then, but Long, who has always been happiest with some kind of ball in his hand, was drawn to the net.

From the sound of that first bounce, my son was begging to go outside , where he was sure Long was just as eager to have a teammate. Long never let on that he wasn’t.

He’d lower the net and patiently teach my son lay-ups and foul shots and how to dribble with one hand.

I told Long then that he had a gift for working with kids. He still does.

I’m glad he and Cook have both found professions in which they can use their talents and their abilities to mentor kids.

Amy Nalley, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club, calls it something else: a passion. All of her employees have it, she says.

“You have to have a passion for kids to work with them every day,” she says.

I came away from the Boys & Girls Club with more than a story about the healthy lifestyles they’re promoting (which, by the way, you can read about in Health Scope, a special advertising section that the News & Record will publish early next year).

I had discovered a wonderful place for kids to spend time.

More than 400 kids ages 6 to 18 are members of the Eden Boys & Girls Club, which opened in the mid-1950s.

The club gives them a safe place to spend the hours after school while their parents are still at work.

It’s open from 2:30 to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday. On Friday, it closes at 6 p.m.

On teacher workdays and in the summer, it’s open from 7:15 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and is a home-away-from-home for lots of kids.

While the youth are there, they can do homework in an area that has computers and an adult to lend assistance and provide supervision.

They can exercise or play chess, checkers, table tennis or pool. They can be on a dance team or, in seasonal weather, work in the garden.

They can shoot hoops or play dodgeball in the gym, romp outdoors on the playground or work out on exercise equipment in a weight room.

The club also offers a team sports program. A junior membership is offered to 4- and 5-year-olds who want to take part.

A newly hired teen coordinator runs a program called Street Smarts that focuses on gang awareness, conflict resolution, making good decisions and accepting differences in people.

The Boys & Girls Club also operates a satellite at the city’s Mill Avenue recreation department in Draper . There, about 25 children show up for homework assistance four afternoons a week. And it’s free.

Nalley is a hands-on director. Not one to hibernate in an office, she meets the school buses as they roll in each afternoon, marshals the children inside and signs them in.

She knows who needs to hit the homework room for a little extra help with math, just as she takes time to ask another kid how his spelling test went.

In the three years that she has been the director at the club, Nalley has learned to do more with less — less money and fewer staff members.

But the community has rallied around the club, as have some individuals who give generously of time and money to support it.

It receives state and federal money, as well as donations from several local businesses and foundations. Among those are the United Way, the Reidsville Community Trust, MillerCoors, the Larson Foundation and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

At some point, I got around to asking what a membership cost.

Forty dollars, I was told.

“A week?” I asked.

A year, Nalley informed me.

That’s a bargain.

For that, children can stay at the club every afternoon after school, five days a week. Plus, the club is open all day on teacher workdays, and members can stay there at no additional charge.

Although the club is open during the summer and members can spend the day if they wish, there is an additional fee to enroll in some programs, which include special activities and outings.

“The fact that we do not charge for our daily youth-development programs sets us apart from other organizations,” Nalley said.

The mission of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America is to “enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as caring, responsible, productive citizens,” she said.

All that for $40.

Plus, your kids are likely to encounter some great mentors.

Contact Myla Barnhardt at 627-1781, Ext. 116, or myla.barnhardt@news-record.com