Boys and Girls Club in Waterloo reopens renovated bathrooms, adds handwashing stations

Bailey Moore, chief financial officer for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Cedar Valley, said renovated bathrooms at the Cedar Valley Lime Street unit in Waterloo are already drawing positive reactions from children: "The most exciting thing that the kids have said about the bathroom is that they no longer stink and there's fresh paint and they're nice."

Moore said the renovation included six new bathrooms upstairs and two downstairs and focused on improving handwashing capacity after lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. "We specifically put a handwash station on the outside of the bathrooms really to speed up our flow for snack time and as well as dinner," she said.

Nisha NcNeil, unit director for the Lime Street unit, said the site expanded washing capacity from four spots before the project to "12 different stations where they can wash their hands," and that the unit serves "about 100 kids every single day."

Rudy Jones, Waterloo’s community development director, said the city’s Community Development office supported the renovation financially and has partnered with the club on similar projects. "This is not the first time we've been with the Boys and Girls Club. They've been a long-term participant, a partner with us in utilizing dollars," he said. Jones added, "Bathroom Money. It's not like the sexy stuff for people to look at or care about," underscoring that routine facility improvements can be critical to daily operations.

Staff said the added stations and reconfigured layout are intended to reduce congestion at snack and dinner times and to make handwashing more accessible for children. The renovation is complete and open for use; officials did not specify the dollar amount of the Community Development support.