For Michaela Colvin, the Edgerley Family South Boston Boys & Girls Club has never been just a place.
It has been a constant in her life, a thread running through generations of her family, shaping her creativity, building her confidence, and now doing the same for her daughter.
“My dad went there,” Michaela said. “I went there. And now my daughter goes there too.”
That kind of continuity demonstrates what the Club means in South Boston. For many families, it is more than an afterschool destination. It is part of the neighborhood’s fabric, a place where young people feel known, challenged, encouraged, and free to grow into themselves.
The Power of Being Seen
Michaela first started going to the Club when she was six years old. Like so many Southie families, going to the Club was simply part of growing up. Her cousins were there. Her neighbors were there. Her father had gone before her. And once she arrived, she found a place where she felt welcome.
Even as a shy child, Michaela remembers the Club as a place where she could relax into herself.
“I always felt like I came and there was just something to do no matter what,” she said. “I was always encouraged to be creative and to do new things.”
That encouragement came to life most vividly in Discovery, the Club’s art center, where longtime staff member Anne Gordon left a lasting mark.
For Michaela, Anne was far more than an adult overseeing activities. She was a steady presence, a creative guide, and someone who truly paid attention.
“She was always just a safe space,” Michaela said. “She really paid attention to each kid. She would say, ‘I think you would like this. Why don’t you try this?’ She was very hands-on.”
That kind of care mattered. Anne did not simply put materials in front of young people and ask them to make something. She saw each child as an individual. She noticed their passions and potential and helped draw them out. For a quiet young person still finding her confidence, that kind of attention made all the difference.
As a child, Michaela was reserved. But at the Club, and especially in spaces shaped by Anne’s presence, she felt safe enough to explore, create, and gradually come out of her shell.
“She definitely helped to foster a lot of creativity in my life,” Michaela said.
Building a Creative Life
What began as encouragement in Discovery became something much bigger. Anne introduced Michaela to knitting and helped nurture an interest that would stay with her. At home, that interest deepened as Michaela learned from her great-grandmother, grandmother, and other family members. Together, those influences helped shape not only a skill set, but a creative identity.
Today, Michaela is a preschool teacher and a fiber artist whose work includes custom clothing, home pieces, and crocheted creations sold online and in stores through her business, Michaela Lee Designs as well as on Etsy – MarketMichaelasCo.
Looking back, she sees a direct link between the creative confidence she found at the Club and the life she has built today.
“I feel like the Club gave me the ability and the desire to just be creative,” she said. “It made me want to keep figuring out what I liked, what I could make, what I could do next.”
From Club Kid to Club Parent
That impact did not stop with Michaela.
Now Michaela’s 12-year-old daughter, Evera, attends the Edgerley Family South Boston Club too. As a single mother, Michaela says the Club has been a lifeline, offering both practical support and meaningful opportunity. Evera takes the bus from school to the Club, where she can finish homework in a dedicated homework room, spend time with friends, and still have time for art, sports and other activities.
Now, as a Club parent, Michaela sees the South Boston Club through a new lens. She views it as an extension of her daughter’s school community, a place where friendships can continue even when kids move to different schools. That continuity matters deeply to Michaela, who remembers how important it was for her to stay connected with cousins and friends growing up.
For Michaela, the Club offers what she calls “freedom with routine,” a balance of structure and choice that she values both as an educator and as a parent.
When Michaela connected with BGCB’s We Own the Day alumni network, something clicked. The annual back-to-school pop-up shopping event at Downtown Crossing, where Club alumni and young entrepreneurs set up alongside one another, felt immediately familiar. The energy, she says, was the same energy she grew up with.
“You can see all the kids who are there. You can see the younger entrepreneurs selling their art and their clothing and whatever else they do,” she said. “It’s such a great environment to be part of and to say, I do this, but it’s because that’s where I came from.”
For Michaela, that is the Edgerley Family South Boston Club’s legacy. It is a place that has grown and changed with the times, while still offering what mattered most when she was a child: encouragement, belonging, and people who truly see you. In her family, that legacy now spans three generations and continues to grow.
