Fresno County’s Boys and Girls Clubs celebrates 75 years keeping kids off the streets
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The Boys and Girls Club of Fresno County has been around since before color television. The group dates back to 1949 when the first Boys and Girls Club opened on the west side of Fresno.
The anniversary comes as the Boys and Girls Club of Fresno County recently hosted a re-opening of its Clovis club on April 15.
According to Vice President of Development with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Fresno County, Kathryn Weakland, the past 75 years have provided their fair share of difficulties to the Boys and Girls Clubs – but the mission to help young people reach their full potential has never faltered.
Fresno County Boys & Girls Club teens make history
According to Weakland, children and young people are most susceptible to negative influence after school, and the mentors and directors who can relate to them are an invaluable resource.
“Many of our staff are former Boys and Girls Club members so they know, they get it – they can really be almost one-on-one peer with them to say, ‘hey let’s focus, let’s try to find some balance in your life.”
Weakland says the peer mentors and staff are just some of the resources available to club members – for an annual fee of $5.
According to Weakland, kids can play basketball, football, computer games, board games, enjoy free warm meals, and even get involved in programs that can set them up for their future.
“We do a ton of financial literacy classes – how do I invest?” Weakland said, “We do cooking classes – we work on public speaking.”
Weakland says she and other staff members have even written recommendation letters for their club members. However, since the pandemic, Weakland says that the number of youths they service has dropped dramatically – despite the club’s best efforts.
“That was a really difficult time,” Weakland said, “we ran school right in our club sites because many kids didn’t have internet at home.”
She says the toll the pandemic took on children could be a ripple effect in the two and a half years they spent locked away due to the global pandemic.
“There’s so many unintended consequences that we didn’t realize we’d be facing today,” Weakland said. “Mental health struggles, loss – it took a long time to get kids to come back.”
Weakland says though the clubs are located close to schools and neighborhoods, many in Fresno are unaware that there are 14 locations across the city. Though the clubs receive grants from time to time, they are primarily donation-based and require community support.
“We stretch your dollar so far,” Weakland says, “and there are so many ways you can give back to the Boys and Girls Club of Fresno County and sustain us for the next 75 years.”
To learn more, you can visit the Boys and Girls Club website here.
