Van Is Donated to Boys & Girls Club

The Boys & Girls Club at Calvert Street Elementary School got an early Christmas present from Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Laidlaw Transit Services: the keys to a reconditioned 15-passenger van.

The gift was given at the club’s second annual holiday party Friday.

About 150 children celebrated the holidays with food, games and presents.

The donated 1986 van, which would have cost the club $6,000 to $7,000, will be used to transport older children to field trips and possibly any child from school to school during the summer, said club executive director Bob Gross.

“We can go to museums, to the beach during beach weather, cultural things,” he said. “This gives us real flexibility to take some small groups on trips.”

The club, which opened on the campus in January 1995, has never had transportation, an “integral part of our organization,” Gross said.

“This certainly plugs a hole in our ability to serve the children in the Boys & Girls Club,” he said.

“It is a component of our overall ability to deliver services to the youth in our community.”

He added that the club has been working with Yaroslavsky’s office for nearly a year to get the van, retired from service and reconditioned by Laidlaw.

In addition to the van, a visiting Santa Claus gave the gathered children presents donated to the club by Rich Sybert, failed candidate for the 24th Congressional District seat.

Gross said Sybert was a visitor to the club this year.

The Boys & Girls Club at Calvert serves about 360 schoolchildren in the area, and organizers hope to open a teen center at Columbus Middle School in Canoga Park.

“This van is going to mean even more once we’re operating there,” Gross said.