Pomona : Youth Club’s Future Iffy

After a dismal year of fund raising, the Pomona Boys and Girls Club is so strapped it might have to close before the end of summer, according to executive director Russell Archambault.

“I’m having to deal with this irony of being where the need in the community is the greatest, yet I have the least amount of resources,” Archambault said, referring to the club’s role of offering children 8 to 18 a haven and an alternative to TV and mischief.

Housed in three small buildings in south Pomona, the 24-year-old Boys and Girls Club serves about 1,600 youth members--250 a day in the summer.

The club relies most heavily on proceeds from its biggest fund-raisers-- weekly Friday night bingo games.

Attendance at those games has dropped over the past year from about 250 to 170 players who come from Pomona and surrounding communities. Attendance plummeted after last spring’s riots. Shop windows were smashed along Indian Hill Boulevard in Pomona, a short distance from the club.

Also, Archambault said, United Way funding has dropped from about $49,000 four years ago to $33,000 this year. On the bright side, he said, donations from individuals are holding steady. And the city will increase its annual contribution to the club in federal block grant money from $20,000 in past years to $30,000 over the next year.