A Boys & Girls Club of the Suncoast Loses Equipment but not Hope

Over the 4^th of July weekend, while the children who attend the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast’s summer camp were away enjoying fireworks and barbeque, their beloved North Greenwood Club was broken in to. The criminal stole all of the computers, televisions, the Wii system, and games. The criminal even stooped as low as to pilfer the children’s afternoon snacks.  Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast is refusing to let these kids go hungry.

These pieces of equipment were utilized by neighborhood children taking part in Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast’s fun Summer Camp experience. The Wii system was being used in a Bruce Video Game Education Program and ‘Making Exercise Fun’ competitions.  The computers were used in teaching children to collect data about animals they would see as part of the Lowry Park Zoo Program, and in supporting the Summer Reading Program.

For the sake of the children, Boys & Girls Clubs is determined to overcome this summer program set back.  Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast is reaching out to the community for donations to replace the items, and to let the children know someone cares about them.

There are deeper implications to this senseless robbery.  “Boys and Girls Clubs provides children with a safe place to learn and grow, and that safe place was violated”, said Robert Swick, Boys & Girls Clubs Board Member and President of  Clearwater Veterans Alliance.   “We plan do whatever it takes to make sure these children receive a good summer, and to restore their safe place” said Swick.

Jessica, teen Club Member and President of the Boys & Girls Clubs, North Greenwood Teen Council said, “Why would anyone want to steal from Boys & Girls Clubs?  This is a place for us young people to hang-out, be safe and develop into adults...it’s just wrong”. 

The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast is calling on the community to help. Donations can be made through Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast website www.bgcsuncoast.org or by calling Carla Mattern at (727)-524-2427, x17.  Cash donations are best.

The North Greenwood neighborhood in Clearwater has been plagued with crime issues and poverty. However, many community organizations are hard at work alleviating these issues, such as the United Way of Tampa Bay, North Greenwood Community Coalition, the Willa Carson Health Resource Center, and the Mt. Carmel Community Development Corporation of Clearwater, Inc. Through their persistence and courage in trying moments, such as this weekend’s incident, they are able to accomplish the positive change so desperately needed.

Remember, it is because of Boys & Girls Clubs that children have grown up to become Rhodes Scholars and United States Presidential Scholars instead of criminals like the person who stole from them.

About the Boys & Girls Club of the Suncoast:

The Boys & Girls Clubs of America movement came to Pinellas County in November 1959 with the founding of the Boys Club of Pinellas Park by Police Chief Maurice L. MacTarsney and Margret “Peg” Nunn.  The Club began operating in January 1960 in an old frame building leased from the City of Pinellas Park with its 1st executive director, James S Hart Jr.  The Boys Clubs of Pinellas, Inc. was chartered in August 1967 when its second club opened at the Northside location in St. Petersburg.  In May 1970, at the urging of both the United Way and the Boys Clubs of America, the Boys Clubs of Pinellas County, Inc. was organized.  In 1991, the Boys Clubs of Pinellas County opened its programs to all youth, forming Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast (BGCS), as we know it today, now with eleven locations.  BGCS under the leadership of Carl R. Lavender, Jr. has the goal “to influence the behavior and the attitudes of each individual boy and girl in a wholesome manner.”  The sole purpose of BGCS is to provide children, youth, their families and the community opportunities for safe, structured, well supervised after school and summer youth programs, with an emphasis on leadership, education and self sufficiency.  The organization has proven its commitment to service for children and community members with innovative and progressive programming and opportunities.  Supporters of Boys & Girls Clubs include government politicians, law enforcement agency representatives, financial institutions, and education boards, among other concerned citizens.  To find out more or to help, visit www.bgcsuncoast.org.

# # #