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BAY MILLS - Jay Memegos was hired on at the Boys & Girls Club of Bay Mills on May 8. Since Memegos said he is used to spending a lot of hours at the club, whether working with the PRIDE Drum and Dance Group, or helping out his wife Kat, settling into his new role is not much of a change for the 33-year-old Chapleau Ojibwe First Nation member. In fact, the only major difference is that Memegos is now getting paid for the hours he spends working with the children in the community.
"I really enjoy working with children one-on-one," he said. "It's something I look forward to every day. I look forward to teaching the children the importance of education and culture. Hopefully, I can show them the right path in life."
While he said most of his activities would be centered on Native American culture, Memegos said he would also like to implement some building programs in the future, where children could learn to build crafts such as birdhouses. In addition to working on the implemented problems slated for each day, such as sports, arts and crafts and study time, Memegos said he has also found that he can be quite useful to the club as a handyman - fixing the various games and equipment that need maintenance throughout the day.
Whether traveling to pow wows across the state with the PRIDE Drum and Dance group, or helping a child work on his or her homework, Memegos would be the first to admit that working with a large number of kids each day is not for everyone. But for him, it's just another day at the office.
"I absolutely love working with kids," he said. "I would agree it's not for everyone, but for me it's definitely easier to work with 100 kids than it was working with a 'few guys' in maintenance (at his old job). I love it."
