Forty Years Ago, Rutherford County Kids Needed Somewhere to Go After 3 P.M. They Still Do.

In 1986, Murfreesboro was still a college town that had not yet learned to think of itself as a city, and the idea of a dedicated after-school club for Rutherford County kids was new enough to need explaining. Forty years later, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Rutherford County is marking the anniversary with the most fitting kind of party: an early one, set for 7:30 Thursday morning, before the school buses finish their routes.

The breakfast at the club's home on Jones Boulevard is built around a simple theme, “You're Part of Our Story.” The guest list says as much. Sponsors and community leaders were invited alongside former board members, current staff and, most tellingly, alumni: people who once came through those doors with a backpack and a homework folder and now come back as parents, donors and volunteers.

What four decades actually looks like

The club's work has never been glamorous, and that is rather the point. It is a safe room between the last school bell and the first parent home from work. It is a table where somebody checks the math worksheet, a gym where energy goes somewhere useful, and an adult who notices when a kid has had a bad day.

Over forty years that quiet routine has added up to thousands of young people. The organization says more than 2,600 now take part in its programs, which run across five core areas familiar to anyone who knows the national Boys & Girls Clubs model: character and leadership, education and careers, health and life skills, the arts, and sports and recreation.

The footprint has grown with the county. The Murfreesboro club on Jones Boulevard remains the headquarters, with a Smyrna club serving the county's northern end, a Shelbyville location beyond the county line, and a future site in Lebanon marked out for Wilson County.

Why the anniversary matters here

Rutherford County in 2026 is not the county of 1986. It is one of the fastest-growing counties in the state, and growth brings a particular kind of strain: more two-income households, longer commutes up I-24, and more children who need somewhere to be between 3 p.m. and dinner. An after-school club is not a luxury in that arithmetic. For a lot of working families it is the thing that makes the day work.

Executive Director Sheryl Chesnutt has described the club as a place where young people find encouragement, opportunity and a sense of belonging, and club leaders said the fifth decade will keep its focus on character development, workforce readiness and helping local kids reach their potential. That workforce piece is new territory compared with 1986. The jobs waiting for today's members sit in logistics hubs, health systems and advanced manufacturing plants, many of which did not exist here when the first class walked in.

How to be part of the next chapter

The theme was not only a nod to the past. Clubs like this run on volunteers, mentors and local giving, and Murfreesboro has built real support for that kind of work. Murfreesboro's Community Investment Trust recently split $598,525 among thirty local nonprofits, and its next application window opens October 1.

Families interested in membership, and neighbors who want to volunteer or give, can start with the club's Murfreesboro.com listing or visit the Jones Boulevard headquarters. Forty years in, the club's story still has room for more names.