BURBANK : Boys and Girls Club Seeks Help With Video

The Boys and Girls Club of Burbank is looking for a local production company to donate editing time for a promotional video to help raise the money it needs to open.

“We’re at the point that if someone was to give us $30,000 we could open almost immediately,” said the Rev. Jerry Jones, pastor of the Burbank Community Church and the club’s president.

The club would be the first affiliate of the national youth organization to come to Burbank. It needs a total of $60,000 for operating expenses and to pay an executive director, Jones said.

The club has received $10,000 in community development block grant funds through the city of Burbank and raised $6,600 in a recent roast of former City Councilman Tim Murphy, a club vice president. With other fund-raising and donations, the club has collected about $31,000 so far, Jones said.

The club would be located at the McKinley Elementary School on West Valencia Avenue.

“That, of course, is the one part of Burbank that really needs this club,” said Jones, referring to problems of gangs and crime in the southeast part of the city. “Historically, whenever they (the Boys and Girls Club) go into a community, crime and drug activity diminish in a hurry.”

Jones said while the club aims at serving the local community, parents from across the city and the eastern part of the Valley would probably register their children too.

Christopher Spencer, a local producer of benefits and shows, has volunteered to put together the 10- to 15-minute video that would be shown to local civic groups in an effort to solicit donations and memberships.

But Spencer needs a production company to donate the tape and editing time. He can be reached at 818-972-2500, ext. 106.

The club uses athletics and other activities to help instill a sense of responsibility and self-worth in a child, Jones said.

“I see this club as more a prevention vehicle than an intervention program,” Jones said. “The Boys and Girls Club tries to get them when they’re young before they start acting like their big brother.”