Club’s New Site Answers the Call for Place for Kids to Play
Youngsters living in west Anaheim have a new hangout: The Boys and Girls Club of Anaheim has opened a club at Schweitzer Park to offer activities and programs after school and during vacations.
“The need has been great in west Anaheim for a very long time,” board member Barbara Quintana said. “We had nowhere for our children to go to participate in activities that are supervised by an adult. . . . They’ve answered a dream for all of us on the west end.”
Chris Argubright, the club’s executive director, said the new facility opened in time to serve youngsters during spring vacation. The official opening will be Wednesday and will feature an open house from 2 to 6 p.m. and a program at 3 p.m.
The new club is named in honor of Allan B. Hughes, a longtime supporter who was vice president of the board at the time of his death last year.
“He really cared about the kids in the community,” Argubright said.
The new club, off Dale Street, has already signed up 102 members and is drawing about 60 youngsters a day, officials said.
The main facility at 311 E. Broadway, near City Hall in downtown, has about 475 members 6 to 18 years old.
Argubright said the west Anaheim location meets a need for “a lot of kids who live in apartments and the motels along Beach Boulevard and don’t have a place to play.”
The club received a $10,000 federal grant and $25,000 from the Boys and Girls Club of America for facilities and programs at the west Anaheim location.
Open weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. during school vacations, the facility offers a homework club and various activities such as arts and crafts and learning computer skills. A program to get club members involved in community service is also planned.
A $5,000 grant from the Amateur Athletic Foundation will pay for a soccer program this fall.
Quintana, a 30-year west Anaheim resident, said the new club will be a place to develop friendships and build self-esteem and respect for others.
“It will give them a well-supervised place to be where they will have someone to listen to them and care for them,” she said.
Club membership is $10 a year.
Information: (714) 491-3617.