SEQUIM — The next 37 days could make a substantial difference to hundreds of children in Sequim and Port Angeles.
That’s because after a fundraiser that fell well short of its hoped-for net, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula are looking for a local “standup effort,” as executive director Bob Schilling puts it.
The clubs in both Port Angeles and Sequim have enjoyed growing numbers of children attending the units this year.
But with membership at $30 per year, rising attendance doesn’t boost revenue enough to keep the doors open.
Schilling, along with his staff of 36 at the units in Port Angeles and Sequim, hopes community members will choose to support the clubs’ after-school programs by sending in a check before the end of the year.
The Boys & Girls Clubs’ 21st annual auction and dinner on Nov. 14 was the organization’s biggest fundraiser, and it looked flashy: club volunteer Stephen Rosales donated his red Corvette, and the ride reaped $30,000.
But those dollars are going straight into a new scholarship fund to be administered by the Sequim Education Foundation — not into the clubs’ bank account.
Aside from the Corvette, the auction and dinner netted $110,000, Schilling said. That’s $25,000 below projections.
“We haveto try to find $25,000 to maintain what we’ve been doing. We’re not going to be able to build on any programs,” he added.
On Monday night, the Sequim City Council voted to renew the contract with the Boys & Girls Club in which the city pays the club $60,000 to provide after-school and evening programs for teenagers.
Those funds will help maintain Sequim’s teen offerings in 2010, said Boys & Girls Clubs board president Jerry Sinn.
Those activities include “Guiding Good Choices,” a program about responsibility, self-confidence and smart dating practices, and “club to kitchen,” in which teens learn to cook. But Sinn doubts there will be any new programs in 2010.
And the city’s $60,000 will not fund the clubs’ staff and programs outside the teen room.
Activities for elementary- and middle-school students include computer applications, sports and other games, snacks and the “power hour” homework club in which kids earn points and cash them in for books or a party.
Earlier this year, some 300 children were coming to the Sequim club each day, while attendance at the smaller Mount Angeles Unit in Port Angeles hit 70.
The numbers were down in October due to rampant colds and flu, Schilling said: The Sequim club’s average daily attendance was 182 youngsters, while Port Angeles’ average last month was 62 per day.
Meantime, Schilling and his staff hope community members — not only parents of club kids — will support the two youth centers.
“Now is the time,” he said, as the clubs face a cash-strapped 2010.
Contributions may be mailed to the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, P.O. Box 4167, Sequim, WA 98382.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
