ClubHouse Academy, Huntington Beach August has been non-stop

activity for the ClubHouse

Academy. Our summer sports

leagues have good participation

as we have almost 675 players

registered for basketball and

soccer. The leagues began the

last week in July and have been

quickly moving along as we are

more than halfway through the

season. August also included

picture day for both soccer and

basketball. It was great to see

most of the players able to show

up and take a full team photo,

which isn’t always easy with

summer leagues.

Adding to the excitement the

ClubHouse Theatre has just

finished their shows for “The

Wizard of Oz.” This summer

had 5 casts that performed a

combined 10 shows in 10 days!

All the casts did an excellent job.

The advanced cast even

included a real live Toto in the

performance! After seeing how

much fun the children had

performing and how much the

audience loved the show, it only

makes sense that the next

show, “Suessical,” will have 6

total casts. The popularity and

following of the ClubHouse

Theatre is amazing and it seems

like there is no limit to the

program’s growth.

Lastly, the Tae Kwon Do

program held a promotion at the

beginning of the month. More

than half of the TKD students

were in attendance in an attempt

to move up the ladder and earn

a brand new belt.

Learning Center Preschool

Moves to Fountain Valley August 27th is moving day. Mark

your calendars, we need help!

Annual Dinner and Auction,

“Big & Little Moments” October 22nd at the Hyatt Regency

Resort and Spa. Proceeds to benefit

the Club’s Scholarship Program.

Upcoming Events that benefit

the Boys & Girls Club

MISSION STATEMENT

To inspire and enable the

healthy development of all

young people, especially

those from disadvantaged

circumstances, to realize

their full potential as

productive, responsible

and caring members

of our community.

Huntington Beach Branch With the summer winding

down here’s a few highlights

from August: During Shake

Rattle & Roll week each day

was themed with a different

decade. On Monday we started

with the 80’s. Tuesday was the

70’s, Wednesday was the 50’s

Thursday was the 20’s and

Friday culminated with the 60’s.

The room activities were ran

with the themes of the decade

and each day at lunch we held a

costume contest. It was great to

see the children’s interpretation

for the time periods and also

very amazing to see how much

the children knew about these

eras. The week was

accentuated by our Sock Hop

carnival. The kids went wild to

their favorite fifty’s songs and

dances. They were also treated

to root beer floats and great

carnival games.

Our kitchen staff held an

Around the World Club. The

staff with the help of our

members created food dishes

from all around the world. It was

great to see the children try new

things and learn how to make

them. I feel the cooking lessons

will leave a lasting impression

on our kids and help them to

realize how much goes into the

preparation of their meals.

We also held a short story

contest. There were well over

fifty entries. Out of all the

entries the winner was Heather

Harris. While all the entries

were great, Heather’s stood out

amongst the rest. Great Job to

Heather and all the children who

participated!

Page 2

We received

very exciting

news from

Boys & Girls Club

of America that

two of our

members won the

Image Makers

National

Photography

program.

Kingston Branch, Fountain Valley AUGUST 2011

Summer is almost over the past

few months have flown by at the

Kingston Branch. Our members

stayed very busy as they

participated in all our Club

activities and field trips! Our Luau

Carnival was a big hit as 250

members had a blast hula

dancing to the steel drum band,

dunking their favorite staff in the

dunk tank and winning prizes

from our various carnival games.

It was the perfect mid-summer

event!

We received very exciting

news from Boys & Girls Club of

America that two of our members

won the Image Makers National

Photography program. Tara, age

11, won for her beautiful image

“The Eye of Wonder” and Nataly,

age 10, won for her photo essay

“Be Yourself” that captured a

photograph to go alongside with

her essay discussing the

importance and beauty in being

yourself. Both photos are unique

and inspiring, encouraging our

members to express their

creativity! We are proud of Tara

and Nataly for their achievement

from Boys & Girls Club of

America and look forward to

hosting a special assembly and

recognition party in honor of their

hard work and commitment to

the Image Makers program.

As the summer season wraps

up and the kids are preparing for

school our staff are working hard

in planning their fall programs.

We will continue to run the

summer programs that have

been a big hit, like Mad Scientist

Club, “Stuck On You” teen

business program and Garden

Club, as well as start or usual

yearly programs such as SMART

Girls, Fine Arts, Triple Play and

more. We will have a day

dedicated to program enrollment

where members can gather

information and sign up. This day

is titled “Kingston Club Rush” and

is the perfect opportunity for

members to register for programs

of their choice. The staff and kids

are sad to say good-bye to

summer but excited to kick off the

school year!

Learning Center Child Development Preschool, HB At the Learning Center,

Administrators, Staff, Parent and

children are excited about the

move; the children have been

busy all month washing chairs

and toys. The teachers have

been selecting toys and learning

materials before they pack them

for the move. Friday, August 19

we had our annual Ice Cream

Social, children and parents had

ice cream sundaes, they enjoyed

the bounce houses, and we had

prizes to give away for children

at the event. We also said

Goodbye to the children who are

transferring to Robert Mayer

Child Development Preschool.

Our event was well attended and

everyone had fun.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS for

Saturday to help our school move

to the new Fountain Valley site.

The works starts at 8AM at the

Waikiki site and will progress to our

new home on Los Alamos. We are

so excited to have this day finally

come and to begin settling in to our

new home. This will be the third

building we have called the

Learning Center Preschool. The

first, Wardlow School, was our

home for 24 years. Then 5 years

on Waikiki. We’re planning on

staying in Fountain Valley forever!

Robert Mayer Child Development Preschool, HB

Page 3

Development Department AUGUST 2011

GRANTS

Our Twilight Education Project

won Boys & Girls Clubs of

America’s Family Strengthening

Award sponsored by the Annie

E. Casey Foundation for

outstanding collaborative family

support programs! It comes with

a $5,000 cash award and is very

prestigious.

We got great news about the

Orange County Transportation

Authority grant that we applied

for last month. We had asked for

funds to support a used school

bus and a driver for the Twilight

program. We were told to ask for

more money because they loved

our program so much. Now,

instead of getting one used bus,

we may be getting two brand

new buses, funds to support two

Twilight drivers, the cost of

insurance, maintenance, and

gas for the buses’ use in the

Twilight program. Along with the

$20,000 we received from the

Verizon Foundation, this will be a

major boost for the Twilight

program.

We also got good news from

the Children & Famil ies

Commission. I asked if we could

i ncor por a te some cos t s

associated with the Learning

Center into our grant payback

and we received approval. We

will be able to shave several

months off of our payback time

by doing this.

We submitted a report to

Kaiser and talked with Kaiser

about why funding was not

renewed this summer. I learned

that every BGC in the county

applied for the same program.

They opted to fund none since

they couldn’t afford to fund every

Club and couldn’t justify

choosing one over another for

the same program. We will apply

for a different program that is

developed by us, not BGCA, next

year.

We submitted a report for our

Pacific Life capital grant and a

request for 2012 support.

EVENTS

August was a very busy month

with both the Constable Classic

golf tournament and the Pins for

Kids bowling tournament. Thank

you to everyone who helped

make these events such a

success! We’re still working

towards our Big & Little Moments

annual benefit in October.

Invitations are at the

printer and will be back

soon. We sent out a

s e c o n d r o u n d o f

solicitation letters to

potential auction item

donors last week, so this

is a perfect time to

connect wi th your

contacts and ask them to

support the event.

MARKETING

We sent fall promotional www.BGCHV.com

postcards to all households of

past members from the last

two years with children ages

6-10 as well as households

from a purchased list.

We have also placed

promotional materials about

our relocating preschool and

our fall program around town.

Fall enrollment materials are

available at each Club site.

We sent press releases

about the relocation of the

Learning Center preschool

and the back to school shoes

event sponsored by Rotary.

Last week, our website was

revamped with all new, up-to-

date information for fall and

we continue to keep our

facebook page updated a few

times a week. If you haven’t

liked us already, please do

and spread the word.

The children had a blast

enjoying their summer with

many fun activities, keeping cool

in swimming pools, going on

nature walks, playing in the

water table with funnels and

measuring cups, and playing

catch with beach balls. The staff

has made their rooms festive

with ocean and other summer-

themed decorations. We ended

summer with an ice cream social

where kids created their own ice

cream sundaes, and celebrated

the end of the year with our

older kids at Chuck-E-Cheese’s

for our annual year-end field trip.

We are sad to see all the Pre-K

kids go, but are proud to tell you

that all of the children in those

classrooms will be attending

Kindergarten in September.

Our newer sta f f have

registered to attend the new

dynamic child care seminar,

“Wonderful Days for Children,” to

earn 5 hours of professional

growth to continue their

education. This training provided

unique ideas and methods for

creating a harmonious and ideal

classroom environment. Staff

members are “ready and excited”

to implement the solutions,

strategies, and interventions they

learned about into their plans for

the upcoming school year. The

entire preschool is busy getting

ready and preparing lesson plans

for the upcoming school year.

Registration is at a peak right

now, with seven out of eight

classrooms filled. We have been

giving an average of five tours a day

to prospective parents, with most of

the touring families making the

decision to enroll their child. We are

looking forward to starting a new

school year in our brand new facility

on the campus of Golden West

College!