GREENFIELD — The longtime executive director of The Boys and Girls Clubs of Hancock County unexpectedly resigned this week, and the organization’s board of directors is staying mum on why he stepped down.
Board of directors president Steve Menser said the board received Darren Turner’s letter of resignation Monday but declined to comment further.
“I know he’s looking to pursue some other ventures out there,” Menser said. “I don’t know what those are.”
The club is in good hands, Menser added. Candace Sexton, who is the Jim Andrews Unit director, has stepped up to fill the role of executive director in the interim.
And Jen Angel, a program coordinator with the club, is filling in as unit director.
“I think we have things covered,” Menser said. “We’re going to be fine in the interim.”
Turner attended the club as a child and joined its staff when he was 13. In 2004, he took the director’s chair.
Two years ago, as the club celebrated 75 years in Hancock County, Turner told the Daily Reporter, “I knew in high school this is what I wanted to do.”
During the last several months, the former director pushed the organization to explore options for developing a club site in New Palestine.
Calls to Turner for a comment were not returned.
Sexton became program director in 2007 and unit director in 2009.
Most recently, she received the Judge Jack L. Brinkman Award — which recognizes a person whose work with children makes a difference in the community — from the Court Appointed Special Advocates program in Hancock County.
Her goal is to ensure there is no interruption in the club’s services while the board searches for a new leader, she said.
“We want to reassure the community that the day-to-day operations … have been continuing to run as normal as possible with no interruption in services,” she wrote in a statement. “We have always strived to provide our members a safe, fun and positive environment and that is what myself as well as the rest of my staff are focused on at this present time.”
The board plans to meet Monday to launch a search committee to find a new executive director. It’s exploring all of its options, Menser said.
“I know there’s a lot of resources out there, and that’s what we want to examine to find the next executive director to lead us forward,” he said. “We’re grateful for staff stepping up in the meantime.”
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“We have always strived to provide our members a safe, fun and positive environment and that is what myself as well as the rest of my staff are focused on.”
-Candace Sexton, interim director
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