Boys & Girls Clubs face funding woes
Sequim Boys & Girls Club member Aylee Bennett, 8, hugs a backpack donated to the club by First Federal. The bank delivered about $700 in school supplies to the club last week. -- Photo by Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News
By Diane Urbani de la Paz, Peninsula Daily News
Print This |
Email This
Recent Headlines
Port Angeles to stay in FEMA fight -- 2/7/12 -10:52 PM
Port Angeles City Council approves final esplanade plan -- 2/7/12 -10:42 PM
(No heading) -- 2/7/12 -10:32 PM
SPORTS: Webb sparks Sequim to 58-51 win over Port Angeles for second place in boys basketball action Tuesday night -- 2/7/12 -10:22 PM
MV Coho ferry back on the job today after maintenance hiatus -- 2/7/12 -05:42 PM
"The club's in trouble financially. We're worried," said Rosales, who's volunteered at the club at 400 W. Fir St. for more than two years.
Bob Schilling, executive director of the clubs' Sequim and Port Angeles units, added: "We've had to adjust the budget, because of the economy . . . People have stopped giving as much," in donations.
Fiscal 2008's budget totals $1.1 million this year for the Sequim club and the Port Angeles unit at 2620 S. Francis St. That pays a staff of 32, only eight of whom work full time, Schilling said.
The Club
Perhaps the most threatened aspect of the Sequim unit is The Club, a menu of after-school and weekend activities for teens.
When it opened in January 2007 with $100,000 in support from the city of Sequim, The Club was hailed by Police Chief Robert Spinks as a crime prevention measure.
The Police Department's 2007 annual report showed juvenile arrests reached a five-year high of 176 in 2006; after The Club opened last year, that figure dipped to 139.
But the city, amid 2008's economic slowdown, may not have much to give The Club in 2009. Sequim faces falling fee and tax revenues, to the tune of $700,000 less than last year.
As the City Council girds itself for the 2009 budget process, no one wants to say whether or not the Boys and Girls Club will lose that $100,000.
But the teen club — and the rest of the programs for some 578 members in Sequim and Port Angeles — suffer from no shortage of energy, Schilling said.
'A lot of spirit'
"There's a lot of spirit. The staff is excited about getting into [the school year,]" even after a summer packed with day trips, car washes and camping trips.
This fall, programs will include the Torch Club for youth age 11 to 13 and the Keystone Club for the 14- to 18-year-olds, Schilling said.
Both programs teach leadership skills and reward participants with responsibilities at the club.
And the teen club, now open Monday through Friday nights, offers a range of activities, from dances to homework help.
"Our teen staff is in communication with the Sequim Middle School and Sequim High School counselors," Schilling said.
Together they provide individual support to students who are struggling in school.
And since food plays such a key part in adolescent lives, the Sequim unit offers the Club to Kitchen program, which teaches menu planning, grocery-store economics and good cooking.
Teenagers will also have opportunities to take part in community-service days in which they offer free help to local businesses, added Kristal Van Selus, director of The Club.
"We've added a lot of structure," Van Selus said.
"A lot of them need that."
But since she's been Club "Mom" for the past 20 months, she also understands the need for some carefree stuff.
So on Friday nights this month, she's bringing in live music, DJs, board games and video games.
Then there's Monday night football: first actual games outside, then pizza inside The Club while the NFL game is on.
Van Selus also will offer art programs in which members tie-dye T-shirts, make hats and otherwise express themselves.
Schilling, meantime, faces the possibility that such activities may not last past the end of this year.
If [the Sequim council] "doesn't give us anything, we will not have anything," he said.
"At 6 o'clock, the lights will go off."
Club members 13 to 18 years old may use the teen room between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., but there wouldn't be a teen club in the evenings as there has been.
"But if the city comes up with $20,000, we need to decide what we can do for $20,000. That may be just a Friday night thing, certainly not be the program the community is used to having."
November fundraiser
The Boys & Girls Clubs receive some United Way money, and their largest fundraiser, the November auction and dinner, typically raises about $200,000.
The auction, set for Nov. 15, is held at the Sequim club because it's far larger than the Port Angeles unit. The latter club has 65 members while Sequim's has 513.
But Schilling hopes to build a stronger relationship — and then a more vigorous youth center — by reaching out to Port Angeles residents.
"If I were standing on a soapbox, I would be calling out to them, saying, 'You're a part of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula,'" he said, adding that he wants to reach families and would-be supporters in Agnew, Gales Addition and the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation, as well as in Port Angeles proper.
He also invites that city's residents and businesses to participate in the auction.
"We want to expand the program there, but we have to show the community will support it."
With more than 4,000 children in the Port Angeles School District and fewer than 2,900 in the Sequim district, "we're upside down," Schilling added.
As for Sequim's teen club and its uncertain future, "I was hoping to build on to the program," he said, "not have the legs cut out from under it."
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: September 02. 2008 9:00PM