Walt Disney Co. donates to local Boys & Girls Club to help build new facility

Funding for a new facility for the Boys & Girls Club of Burbank and Greater East Valley got a big boost from a longtime partner this week.

The Walt Disney Co. donated $1 million to the local nonprofit during a ceremony on Thursday at Providencia Elementary School, near where the Boys & Girls Club plans to build a 16,000-square-foot facility as its new main club.

“The Walt Disney Co. is pleased to make this contribution and fund the construction of a new main club facility,” said Elissa Margolis, the company’s senior vice president of enterprise social responsibility, in a statement. “The impact of this new club will more than double the number of members served by the Boys & Girls Club and provides a safe place that meets the diverse needs of our local youth.”

The club’s proposed new location, which is planned for a lot behind Providencia, is not too far away from its current site at 2244 N. Buena Vista St.

Shanna Warren, chief executive of the local Boys & Girls Club, said her organization entered into a long-term lease and joint-use agreement with the Burbank Unified School District to secure a new location for the club.

“We will build this amazing facility, taking into consideration some of the needs that [Providencia] has, so that their teachers can use parts of our building during the day,” she said. “It’s a great partnership.”

Warren added that Burbank city officials have been a big help for the organization, and hopes they can continue assisting as the organization looks for additional funding.

Should the nonprofit reach its goal of about $6 million, the new building would give the organization some much-needed additional space.

With Disney’s donation, the local Boys & Girls Club has raised roughly $2 million, so far.

The local facility currently serves between 75 and 100 children during the school year and about 400 kids during the summer, Warren said. The organization, overall, has 20 locations and serves more than 3,800 children, she added.

With that large number of children at the current local main club, Warren said she and her staff have had to improvise how they use the limited space. In some cases, children from different grade levels have to work in the same area.

The proposed new facility, Warren said, would hopefully give children of varying needs a dedicated space to learn.

“With the new building, we’re tripling our space, but it’s more about having specialized programs for kids of different ages,” she said.

The donation from Disney did not come by happenstance. Warren said she reached out to the local company, which for many years has helped the local Boys & Girls Club, sometime in March, and approached its officials with plans for a new facility.

“We can’t just go to them and ask them for money,” Warren said. “We have to be able to show them that we have a plan and a budget. It was a process where we worked together.”

After submitting the proposal, Warren said she and her staff just waited to see if the animation company would be willing to help.

“Because it’s taken us 10 years to make this happen, I haven’t expected anything,” Warren said. “I figured that we’d ask and hope for the best. I’d like to think that we have a pretty close relationship to them and they do a lot for not just my Boys & Girls Club but all Boys & Girls Clubs. I was definitely hopeful, but it’s a lot of money, and the most money I’ve ever asked for. I just said a lot of prayers.”

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio