Youth Club Receives 3-Month Reprieve

It will be a Happy New Year after all for the youths at the Boys and Girls Club of Echo Park.

Originally slated to close on Thursday because of a lack of funds, the club at 303 Patton St. has been granted a three-month reprieve by the governing board of directors while community members work toward securing its future. The facility will remain open at least until March 31.

Corporate and community leaders are trying to form a new board of directors to oversee the Echo Park club, which is now run as a branch of the 50-year-old Hollywood Boys and Girls Club. This new “consortium of people” will try to raise about $15,000 a month to keep the Echo Park club open, according to Executive Director Tom Stretz.

The new board will also seek corporate donors to back the facility on a long-term basis and help the club become independent of the Hollywood site.

Board member Dan Niemann, Councilman Mike Hernandez and other community leaders began rounding up support in November after the board announced that it would have to close the Echo Park branch, which for six years has provided children ages 6 to 18 a haven from violence and gang activity.

Although the club has succeeded in providing programs and activities for local youth, it has been a financial drain on the nonprofit corporation, according to Boys and Girls Club officials.

Community contributions to the Echo Park facility have been scarce, forcing officials to tap into the organization’s reserves to keep operating the club, which costs about $160,000 to $200,000 a year to run, Stretz said.

But Stretz added that the community has come together recently to keep the Echo Park club open. Representatives of companies and agencies such as the city Department of Water and Power, the Arco Foundation and the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division are among those involved in the effort, he said.

“This group of people are all reading from the same page--that the community cannot suffer the loss of that club,” Stretz said.

The Echo Park club provides everything from athletics and recreational outings to tutoring, cooking and arts classes to more than 1,000 children annually. A $5 annual fee covers unlimited use of the club, which is outfitted with a gym, a weight room, an arts and crafts room, a game room with pool and Ping-Pong tables and an entertainment room with a big-screen television.