Youth Club Moving in a New Direction

It’s still a place for sports, arts and crafts. But a lot has changed at the Oxnard Boys & Girls Club since the doors opened in 1953.

For one thing, the organization changed its name to include girls in 1986, when the national boys and girls clubs merged.

Rising insurance premiums have done away with trampolines and tackle football.

And the organization’s focus has shifted from just recreation to after-school care and education as more mothers have moved into the work force.

Moreover, the club is preparing to move its headquarters from the city’s La Colonia neighborhood, where membership is declining. Officials hope to raise $2.1 million for a new headquarters on 5th Street near Ventura Road, closer to children who need its services.

The Oxnard Boys & Girls Club now operates in seven locations, including a center in Port Hueneme and sites at five schools for after-school care.

The 44-year-old Oxnard headquarters at 7th and Meta streets was named in 1991 after Harriett H. Samuelsson, who remains a constant amid all the change.

Samuelsson, 89, was a driving force in the club’s growth, serving as board president in 1967 and making substantial contributions. Samuelsson, who owned a neighborhood appliance store with her late husband, set up an endowment fund in 1969 with a $300,000 donation of IBM stock. She has also contributed $25,000 to $50,000 annually over the last 20 years.

Today, Samuelsson still attends monthly board meetings. “I was interested in the children because I didn’t have any of my own,” Samuelsson said. “Kids need a place to go and play and be taught how to play golf and basketball and so on.”

The plan to move the headquarters is spurred in part by a decline in membership.

After-school attendance dipped from about 75 to fewer than 40 after the city opened a recreation center in the area five years ago, drawing away some children. Club officials also point out that fewer children live near the old building than did 44 years ago.

“If you look at the existing facility, it’s in the middle of an industrial area,” said the club Executive Director Abe Oliveras.

Given that the city has offered club directors an opportunity to secure three to four acres for a new site and that membership is dwindling at the present site, Oliveras says the time couldn’t be better to build a new facility.

Directors believe moving to the new site will double membership to 4,000, which would make it the largest youth organization in Ventura County.

Plans for the 25,400-square-foot facility include a large gymnasium, teen room, computer room, children’s theater, gymnastics and weight rooms, arts and crafts area and an outside play area that will include a soccer field.

Club officials don’t plan, however, to abandon either the existing headquarters or the children who are members there.

They plan to either continue to operate it or work closely with an organization such as the Police Activity League, which has expressed interest in taking over management of the youth program there.

“The main concern for our board is to not turn our back on the kids in that immediate area,” Oliveras said. “We’re very committed to making sure a program is there.”

The organization has already received a $500,000 donation from Oxnard developer Martin “Bud” V. Smith to build the new youth center, which would be named in his honor. Smith hopes that others in the business community will match his donation.

And real estate investment company Channel Island Properties has donated more than 1,000 square feet of office space in the Financial Plaza to serve as the campaign headquarters and for administrative offices.

Board members expect to have raised the $2.1 million needed to build the facility within two years, and to complete the headquarters within another year.