Mary Groves, the long-time director and guiding force behind Club 3:30 at the First Presbyterian Church of Marietta, has officially retired.
Club 3:30 is one of the state’s longest-running after-school programs.
“Club 3:30 was not just a job for me, it was a calling and a ministry,” said Groves, who joined the FPC Marietta team in 1990 and took over as director of Club 3:30 three years later. “The purpose of the program has always been to support working parents by providing high-quality childcare at no cost, but Club 3:30 has also been a blessing to me. It has brought me so much joy to connect with hundreds of children over the years and watch them flourish. Many of them came into the program as shy kindergartens who did not speak English, but they left as confident, bilingual fifth graders.”…