The Bellevue Community Center may default to a fitness facility in your mind. But don’t let the ellipticals and group fitness classes cloud your memory that there are tons of kid-focused activities going on here, too.
In fact, Program Director Demario Patterson has a long list of ways kids can take advantage of this community resource. They've just wrapped up summer camp season, with those hot, sunny days filled with in-house games and activities, arts and crafts, sports and fitness, field trips, and intramural competitions against other community centers across the city.
But during the rest of the year, Bellevue keeps kids busy with sports leagues, after-school programming, and a holiday calendar that spans everything from Easter egg hunts to Halloween skating.
Sports Leagues
The Bellevue Community Center runs youth leagues in T-ball, soccer, flag football, and basketball throughout the year—but basketball is the big one. The center is a planned basketball site for the city, with a large gym that hosts one of Nashville's biggest leagues. Different centers take different age groups, from 4-5-, and 6-year-old divisions up through 9-year-olds, and at its peak, Bellevue fielded 11 teams on its own.
"Bellevue does a really good job of showing up and supporting the league here," Patterson says. And the league fees don't pad a budget somewhere downtown. "The money parents pay us for sports leagues just goes to uniforms, trophies—stuff they get to keep once the league is over.”
Free After School Program
Did you know? Every Metro Nashville community center offers free after-school programming, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m.
"It's free, which a lot of people in the city don't know," Patterson says.
Once kids arrive, the afternoon models summer camps on a smaller scale, with plenty of games and activities to keep kids moving. But during the school year, the program also offers homework help. Patterson is careful to note it's not formal tutoring, but rather staff members sitting down with kids who need some help.
Kids are also fed during the program, and the center is working to bring in new partners to ensure food insecurity is never an issue for local kids.
City-Wide Celebrations
Patterson and his colleague, Miss Lindsey, also serve on the culture committee, the group responsible for organizing city-wide celebrations across Nashville's community centers.
That includes the Bully Walk, an event that brings kids from every center together to have fun and speak out against bullying, and a Juneteenth celebration each summer. Throughout the year, the centers' rec kids participate in oratorical contests and other competitions, and programs like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts meet at the centers.
The holiday calendar stays busy, too: Halloween skating with candy giveaways, Christmas events, an Easter egg hunt for kids, and a Thanksgiving baking contest that, needless to say, the kiddos love.
So if you’re looking for low- or no-cost programming for kids right here in the Bellevue community, centered around keeping kids active, fed, and always learning, don’t forget about the great work going on at the Bellevue Community Center. It’s located at 7638A Highway 70 South, adjacent to the Ford Ice Center.
For more information or additional programming, visit the Nashville.gov website.