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Boys & Girls Club Is Like a Second Home for Moorpark Youths

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Boredom drove Carlos Cordova, 15, to the Moorpark Boys & Girls Club. And the fear of boredom has kept him coming back for the last six years.

“We live up on Grimes Canyon Road,” he said, standing just outside the club’s recently renovated gymnasium. “There’s not a lot to do up there.

“You get bored. Here you can meet new people and hang out with friends. There’s a lot of stuff to do.”

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Carlos, selected as the club’s youth of the year last year, is one of about 100 youths--most between the ages of 7 and 15--who are dropped off by their parents at the club each morning or who arrive by foot each day after school.

Carlos’ parents send all five of his younger siblings, including his 5-year-old sister Yessenia, to the club.

Although the club’s director emphasizes that official day-care services are not available, many parents faced with spending much larger sums on day care opt to pay the $12 per year it costs to enroll their children in the club.

While other groups charge as much as $100 per week for summer programs similar to that of the Moorpark club, officials said they want to keep fees low so that children from low-income families will keep coming.

Every day, many working families depend on the services they offer, club officials said.

“Day care is a major expense,” said Michelle Romero, whose 10-year-old daughter Leeanna goes to the club after summer school. “I work all day. I can’t be with her, but I can send her to the club and be sure that she’ll have fun and won’t be bored. I know a lot of parents who can’t afford child care, who send their kids to the Boys & Girls Club.”

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The Boys & Girls Club is part of a national organization based in Atlanta whose goal is to provide a healthy environment for children to develop physically and socially.

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“Our goal is to teach children how to survive out there,” said Tony Linton, the Moorpark Boys & Girls Club president, who is a quality control manager with Rockwell International.

Linton said the programs, including sports leagues, outdoor activities and arts and crafts, hinge on social interaction. He said many of the children and their parents consider fellow club members as part of an extended family.

Each year, the number of programs offered at the club increases, and so do the number of youngsters.

In 1985 when the club was started in Moorpark, it had about 30 youths and was located in a one-room trailer at the Chaparral Middle school. Today, Linton estimates that the club, now located in the gymnasium of the old Moorpark High School on Casey Road, has more than 1,200 members.

The club bought the gym in 1991 for over $500,000 from the Moorpark Unified School District. The organization made a $150,000 down payment, but still owes the school district about $395,000. Linton said the club is planning to ask local corporations next spring to help them pay off the mortgage.

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In addition to the money owed to the school district, the club is also trying to raise funds to repay a $50,000 loan it received from the city to help make the down payment on the gym. It also owes about $30,000 in back taxes.

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“Obviously, we have to do more fund-raising,” Linton said.

It has cost more than $100,000 to renovate the building. Before the renovation, the gym floor was dangerously warped and bowed-out in sections. The roof leaked, and during every storm the primary activity of the club’s executive director, Antoinette Carbone-Sarcinella, was to carry out the buckets that had collected water dripping onto the floor.

“I must have carried 40 gallons of water myself during one storm,” she said.

The roof is fixed and the cedar-tongue floor is polished and in prime condition. The renovated gym, the centerpiece of the club, is used during summer for a youth basketball league. Linton said more than 600 youngsters participate each year in the league, making it the club’s most popular activity.

Linton said the club does a good job of making do with what it has.

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The club’s activities center is located in the gym’s locker room. The children set up their paints on the white tiles where the shower was once located. They make do with a small library consisting of about six book shelves. Until a recent break-in, the club had two computers in its computer room.

Along with the arts and crafts and afternoon exercise classes, some of the children play pool on the mini-pool table set up in one on the rooms.

Amanda Smith, 14, is particularly adept at running the table, beating all comers for a good hour one morning. She has been coming to the club for more than five years.

“I don’t have to come here, I just like it,” she said. “It’s fun and this is where most of my friends are. If I wasn’t here I guess I’d be at home watching TV.”

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