WESTMINSTER : Boys and Girls Club Shutters Its Doors

After more than a year of financial struggles, the Boys and Girls Club closed Friday, leaving many parents scrambling to find day care for their children, club officials said.

Ceil Miller, president of the club’s board of directors, called the move “a bitter pill decision” but added that it was not unexpected.

“I don’t know how we were able to keep the doors open in the 12 months of 1990,” she said. “The Boys Club had been financially stressed in 1989. Fund-raisers turned out to be fund losers. We didn’t want to raise fees because we didn’t want to hurt the people we were trying to help.”

The final blow to the club was the decline in revenues from its weekly bingo game, which had brought in about $10,000 a month.

Miller said that as other organizations started bingo games, the club’s revenues plummeted.

The club served more than 1,200 youngsters, Miller said. It cost about $21,000 a month to run the club and its full roster of activities, which included tutoring, athletic programs and field trips.

In the last few months, the club was spending only about $12,000 a month.

Miller said the board plans to reopen the club within six months after a fund-raising and marketing drive that aims to collect $121,000.

For now, however, she said she is concerned for the youngsters who may become latchkey children.

“My heart bleeds for them. The kids are the real losers in this,” she said. “It was the only alternative to them being on the street. We feel (the club) is an absolute need in the community.”