Ventura Boys, Girls Club Draw Business Support

As the curtain rises Saturday evening on the “The Bright Lights of Broadway” auction-dinner benefiting the Boys & Girls Club of Ventura, it largely will be thanks to contributions of money, items and services by local businesses.

From the used car donated for auction by Barber Ford to photo services provided by Jaffe’s Photo Lab to the $10,000 contribution made by E.J. Harrison & Sons Inc., the Boys & Girls Club has gathered a wide range of corporate support for its 29th annual event at the Doubletree Hotel in Ventura.

“It was always instilled in my brothers and me to put back into the community, to help the community that basically makes us,” said Myron Harrison, vice president of the Ventura-based E.J. Harrison & Sons trash-hauling company.

Harrison & Sons has been involved with the Ventura auction for the past five years, donating $10,000 each year. Harrison said the company has just signed on to continue the financial support for the next five years.

“If you go to an event of the Boys & Girls Club, or any organization, it’s basically always the same businesses helping,” said Harrison, who serves on the board of directors of both the Ventura and Camarillo Boys & Girls clubs. “There are probably 400 or 500 businesses in Ventura County that are always there when you need them.”

Doug McMillan, co-owner of Voice-Tel Communications, a Ventura voice mail provider, is one of three business owners splitting the $5,000 dinner sponsorship for the auction.

For McMillan, the benefits of helping the Boys & Girls Club are twofold.

“The board [of the club] is a fairly recognizable group of business leaders in the area. The advantage to me was for the networking purposes, obviously,” he said. “But the primary satisfaction was that I was a Boys Club member in Seattle and that kept me out of trouble to a degree, I imagine, and I want to return the favor.”

Gregg Kravitz, a regional sales representative for the San Francisco-based Bancroft-Whitney Law Publishing company, has teamed with representatives from two other legal publishers to donate a combined $5,500 in CD-ROM legal-reference material and services to be auctioned.

“I consider it the responsibility of individuals and businesses that operate and prosper in this community,” said Kravitz, a five-year member of the Boys & Girls Club board of directors. “It’s only right that these businesses turn around and assist the community.”