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Enjoying a day at the club

The luncheon started at a high energy level that continued throughout at the Boys & Girls Club of La Plata County on April 17.

The club’s annual day-of-the-ask also included a breakfast for early rising donors, but since yours truly doesn’t do early mornings – a result of working afternoons and nights – I can only personally attest to what happened at lunch. I’ve heard breakfast was no different.

Breakfast, by the way, was generously provided by CJ’s Diner. Lunch was courtesy of Zia Taqueria.

It was a little time off from school for some of the club’s members, who greeted guests at the door with an enthusiastic handshake and hearty welcome before showing us to our tables. All of the young people were members of either the Keystone or Torch clubs within the Boys & Girls Club and work to educate and inspire young leaders.

Both breakfast and lunch were designed to be efficient to get people to work, but they didn’t stint on telling the Boys & Girls Club story. When the club opened eight years ago, it filled a gaping void in our community – a safe place after school for middle school students. But it’s so much more than that. With the goals of academic success, building good character and citizenship and encouraging healthy lifestyles, it offers homework help, fun games, physical activity, computer time – both hands-on and digital arts – and the aforementioned leadership opportunities. Serving kids ages 6 to 18 and providing activities that I’m probably forgetting because I’m writing this at midnight, it’s a truly hopping place.

But even more than that?

One student after another told me that the club is a second family, including Youth of the Year Aleasha Prescott, who told the whole crowd what the club has meant to her – and how it’s helped her dream big. Currently a junior in high school, she has her sights set on Yale University and a life of adventure. She was composed throughout, until that is, she lost it at the end talking about leaving the friends she has made at the Boys & Girls Club as she goes out into the world to pursue her goal of becoming a writer. I can safely say there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, although my vision was kind of blurry because I shed a few tears of my own at her conclusion.

(Tip for next year? Some little packets of Kleenex on the tables might be a good idea. It was tricky giving her a standing ovation while searching for a tissue.)

All of these benefits come with a $15 annual membership, because no child will be excluded because of a lack of ability to pay. That’s the other hole it fills – affordable kids’ activities in a town where many parents, especially single mothers, are working multiple jobs to survive in our expensive community. Summer day camps are additional, but they’re still affordable and offer an even broader variety of activities.

Vaughn Morris, president and chief professional officer of the club, seemed as enthusiastic as he was the day the club opened. A membership of more than 1,000 students, with 22 percent falling in the 6 to 8 range, 41 percent ranging from 9 to 11 in age, and 37 percent in the 12 to 18 age group certainly says they’re doing a lot of things right.

While the club only charges $15 per year, it costs about $1,000 per year per student between maintaining the facility, paying staff and buying materials. And the club does it for that thanks to the help of committed volunteers and our generous community.

That’s what the ask was all about, and Board President Eric Eicher said he and the other bankers in the room would make it easy – they can charge your bank account monthly should you prefer to budget your gift.

Several board members and long-time supporters organized tables at both meals, including Pat Barrett, Chester Brandt, Marsh Bull, Jeff Dupont, Eicher, Annette Gallegos, Melisa Jackson, Laura Lewis-Marchino (she was my hostess), Peter Marshall, Morris, Janet Mosher, Nancy Wharton and Robert Whitson. People who organized a table for one of the meals included James Brost, Joe Clair, Stacy Reuille-Dupont, Barb Phipps, Candace Richerson and Terri Will.

This event runs on its sponsors. In this case, it was Alpine Bank, Durango Motor Co., Mercury Gives, the DoubleTree Hotel, Southwest Ag, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Express Employment Professionals.

The goal for the event, between breakfast and lunch, was to raise $50,000. Alas, I fear the lunch crowd did not live up to its higher number of attendees. The breakfasters pledged $20,000, leaving us, with four more tables of people, to come up with $30,000. Our total, however, was slightly above $24,000.

If you would like to help the Boys & Girls Club of La Plata County achieve its mission – we are the village in the “It takes a village ...” quote, after all – send it to 2750 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Visit www.bgclaplata.org to learn more.

A little bird told me off-the-record that the club hopes to make an exciting announcement early this summer, so stay tuned.

HHH

Dancing in the rain for their birthdays are Bill Watt, Bob Riggio, Cole House, Deanna Schardt, John Sandhaus, Vicki Ochocki, Donna Jean Harper, Nancy Carr, Sandra LaFevre, Bonnie Brennan, Sandy Sunderland, Carrie Vogel and Clint Wolf.

Special greetings go to Barbara Denk, who is celebrating her un-90th birthday this week.

HHH

I believe I wrote in my last column about how I like to encourage young philanthropists to become lifelong philanthropists. One of the best ways we can make that happen is to help make their early efforts a success.

Seth Marvin-Vanderryn, a sophomore at Durango High School, has taken on an ambitious project. For the past two years, he’s been raising funds to build a school in Khun Dong village in Myanmar, one of the villages that’s a partner of the Durango-based Shanta Foundation.

He has raised $11,700 of the $12,000 needed, and the village has already broken ground on the school.

To complete his fundraising, he has recruited a generous local business, Native Roots Gardening Center, to donate a percentage of all sales Saturday and Sunday – that’s this weekend – to his project. I find that particularly generous because this is high season for Native Roots as gardeners begin the joyful planting of spring.

If Seth raises more than $12,000, the money will go to extra school supplies and other classroom items. I remember once writing about a young woman who grew up in another developing country, Madagascar, whose mother would break a pencil in half so each of her children would have one to write with in school. If anything, Myanmar is even more impoverished, so those supplies will be a key ingredient in the school’s success.

If you’re a gardener who is trying to decide whether to make your purchases this weekend or next weekend, here’s another reason to quit procrastinating and go do it. You can raise plants and a school in one sweet go.

Native Roots is located at 26266 U.S. Highway 160 next to Home Depot.

HHH

Sharing an umbrella made for two for their anniversaries are Van and Mary Butler, Bill and Pam Brown, Bob and Shannon Kunkel and Stan and Alice Crapo.

HHH

Here’s how to reach me: neighbors@durangoherald.com; phone 375-4584; mail items to the Herald; or drop them off at the front desk. Please include contact names and phone numbers for all items. Follow me on Twitter @Ann_Neighbors.



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