Westside club celebrates renovations

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

With a powerful snip, Santa Barbara City Councilmember Roger Horton cleaved the red ribbon in two, officially signaling the rededication of the Westside Boys & Girls Club following a $1.3 million facelift.
Although major construction ended in June 2007, workers have been putting the finishing touches on the newly reconstructed entryway and game room, expanded computer lab, and retouched gymnasium.

“It’s a lot brighter and it feels a lot more welcoming,” club director Lindsey Leonard said. “The roof used to be about the height of the ceiling in a house. It was dark and not very inviting.”
Built in 1964, the club now serves about 750 youth between ages 5 and 18, offering afterschool programs that include art projects, pool, ping-pong, athletics, hip-hop dance, computer work, and a homework “power hour.”
“The economic times are tough and they are going to get tougher for families,” Horton said. “Our kids need all the help we can give them. … This is just so vitally important to our community.”
Major construction focused on the entryway and game room — giving that area a vaulted ceiling among other improvements. Desiree Herrera, an 11-year-old Monroe Elementary School student, said after using a wooden tunnel to get into the club for a year, the new entryway has been a welcome sight.
“It’s not as compacted,” she said.
“It was just very clustered with construction,” said Ana Palacios, a membership clerk. “There is still a lot of work that needs to be done.”
County Supervisor Salud Carbajal, who lives near the Westside club’s 602 W. Anapamu St. location, congratulated the staff and those who donated to the renovation effort.
“This couldn’t have come at a better time,” he said. “You open the newspaper and you see the challenges our families and children are facing.”
He described his own experience growing up in Oxnard in public housing and attending the local Boys & Girls club as instrumental to keeping him on the right track.
“If it wasn’t for the Boys & Girls club in my Oxnard community … I’m not sure I’d be here before you in the capacity I am,” Carbajal said.
With four clubhouses — in Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria and Lompoc — the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara County serves about 8,400 kids annually. Membership is $20 a year, Leonard said, and scholarships are available. During the school year, the Westside club operates from 1 to 8 p.m., and during summer and breaks from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, visit www.unitedbg.org.
On a table in the gymnasium sat several photographs of the club circa 1965. Built for $35,000, the facility included a game room, gymnasium and basement workshop. Since then, its seen only minor changes until construction began in March 2006.
“Every time I walk by this place, it sends chills down my spine,” said Sal Rodriguez, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara County. “When I started in 1995, it didn’t look like this.”
Major donors to the renovation effort include Mericos Foundation, Wood-Claeyssens Foundation, Ann Jackson Family Foundation, Hutton Foundation, Santa Barbara Foundation, Weingart Foundation, the City of Santa Barbara, Williams-Corbett Foundation and Bull Foundation.