SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Big Things Ahead for Boys and Girls Club

Barely 2 years old, the Boys and Girls Club of Capistrano Valley is like a toddler busting out of clothes faster than a parent can buy new ones.

But come October, all of that is set to change.

In an arrangement that has won the backing of local school officials, the Boys and Girls Club will move into a 5,000-square-foot building on El Camino Real that now serves as a book depository for the Capistrano Unified School District.

In turn, school district staff who work in the building will be relocated to part of a newly renovated warehouse across town, much closer to the school district’s headquarters.

For the past 18 months, the Boys and Girls Club has been cramped in a 600-square-foot portable classroom at Serra High School, a few hundred feet from the book depository. A weight machine takes up a good portion of the club’s teen center (which is actually a portable classroom), where youths can play video games, table tennis, listen to music or lounge on one of four sofas stuffed into another part of the room.

Local businesses, the city, school district and volunteers have collaborated to make the club’s move possible, said Mark Buffington, the Boys and Girls Club new--and first--executive director.

Buffington said the quasi-building swap will enable the club to accept more members and expand programs.

“This has been a partnership from the start,” Buffington said. For example, the club has enlisted volunteer help of tradesmen to prepare the warehouse for the school district. Among other things, workers have installed heating and air conditioning equipment and drywall.

Daniel Crawford, the school district’s director of construction, said the building switch will not cost Capistrano Unified any money. And, he added, the change will ease overcrowding at the district’s headquarters.

Buffington said the Boys and Girls Club still needs donated materials, such as carpeting, drop ceiling, wood and tile--and always, cash donations.

For the expansion, the club also is looking for donated games, books, computers, televisions, tables and chairs.

Harry Finigan, one of the local club’s two founders, said he envisions membership growing from its current 150 to about 1,000. The club caters to boys and girls ages 7 to 16.

To allay concerns of residents to the east near El Camino Real, Buffington said, the club will limit pedestrian access to the club from the west, off of Camino Capistrano.

Eventually, the club will offer coun For information on how to donate labor or materials, call (714) 489-2951. To reach the club, call (714) 240-7898.