Boys & Girls Club a model for the future

ONE PHRASE in particular stood out last Thursday as a couple hundred community members packed into the brand-new Jim and Carolyn Milgard Family HOPE Center. The newest addition to the Boys & Girls Club family, the Cheney Family branch on Skansie Avenue in Gig Harbor, was called: “inter-generational.”

It’s a model that separates itself from Boys & Girls Clubs of the past, and it’s one that should be successful — especially in this community.

The concept? To fill the club with people of all ages. To have programming and a meeting place for senior citizens during the day, and to host an after-school program for children ages 6 to 18 until 7 p.m. Sounds easy, but it’s been far from it.

The 34,000-square-foot club cost $8.7 million to build. It’s well-located near Henderson Bay and Gig Harbor high schools, as well as Discovery Elementary School. But it took years of effort, from former Gig Harbor Mayor Gretchen Wilbert, to Pierce County Council member Terry Lee, to the folks in charge of the plans — Rick Guild, the president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound and Gary Yazwa, the ONE Campaign and Endowment director. And it wouldn’t have happened if Brad and Carolyn Cheney, and Jim and Carolyn Milgard, hadn’t stepped forward to back the project.

It took more than $60 million from start to finish, and it’s a magnificent building where wonderful confidence-building and friendship-lasting activities will take place — both for our children and our seniors.

What’s different about the club is its partnerships with outside community organizations. The Lindquist Dental Clinic for Children will provide low-cost services. The Peninsula Athletic Association aims to have all children participate in sports, regardless of skill level. Read 2 Me of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound works to promote the message of reading success, and the Children’s Museum of Tacoma will put on its “Play to Learn” program for free for parents, caregivers and children younger than 6.

The Peninsula School District and Harbor Christian Center are associate tenants in the building, and additional partners include HopeSparks, Kids at Hope and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s family support program.

Table games and a gym large enough to host community events occupy the first floor of the building, and classrooms — including a performing arts room, a teen center and a senior center — are among the spaces on the second floor.

It will truly serve users from preschool to seniors, making it the only one of its kind in the nation. It was so impressive to Kirk Dominick, the vice president of club services for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, that he said it will be the new model for the organization.

Now they’ll turn their focus to increasing the availability for all children and seniors to get involved, and to help keep our kids healthy in all aspects of life.

Perhaps Yazwa said it best: “Let’s celebrate today, because tomorrow, there’s work to do.”