Moving here from Wake Forest, my wife and I wondered what we would do with our children, who were then elementary school-aged, after school each day. When we heard about the club, we stopped wondering.

Our children had been members of the Boys & Girls Club in Wake Forest and we had learned a lot about the programs and services the club offered. My children fussed every morning about having to go to the club after school, but invariably, every day when we went to pick them up, they wanted to stay just a little bit longer.

When I saw the facility – a triple-wide in the back parking lot at Zebulon Middle School – I was less than impressed. But inside that triplewide, Lamont Watkins and Karl Thoma were running an operation not all that much different from the one our children were leaving behind in the shiny, giant building in Wake Forest. I knew I had a great place for my children to go after school.

Still, it troubled me that there was such a disparity in the facilities.

“Are there any plans,” I asked, “to build a permanent building?”

Lo and behold, there were. The only question was when. Boys & Girls Club folks didn’t really have that answer back in 2007.

They know now. In less than 10 days time, children will stream into that new building at the corner of Shepard School and Old Bunn Roads.

I have yet to see the inside of the new facility, beyond the photos taken by staff writer Aaron Moody in recent weeks. But I have driven past the site on a weekly basis and, with every little change in the structure, I got more excited.

Here’s what I know about the inside of that building. It will give children a much larger space than they’ve ever had. But more importantly, it will be more organized than anything they’ve ever had. There will be space dedicated to the quiet, where students can sit down and do homework and study. Despite their best efforts the staff at the current clubhouse could never really provide that.

There will be indoor recreational facilities. With the exception of occasionally using the gymnasium at Zebulon Middle School, much of the physical activity for Boys & Girls Club members took place in the parking lot outside the clubhouse. Think about that. Kids were playing in a parking lot.

In a few days’ time, they will have their own gymnasium.

No one would ever confuse me with the parent who knows everything. But one thing I’ve learned about children is they will bust their rear ends to live up to the expectations of adults they respect. This new facility says a lot about the expectations Zebulon’s adults have for their children.

If you visit, you’ll see signs throughout the building that commemorate the support Zebulon residents have shown this institution. The children will see it every day.

I could not be prouder of the way people in this community have gotten behind their children, raised their expectations and made it come to pass.