Youngsters Get Boost Toward Adulthood

Peter Mejia’s mother placed him in Judy Zdravje’s arms for the first time when he wasn’t much more than a week old.

If words accompanied that motherly gesture, they are long forgotten. But Zdravje, who has worked at the Variety Boys and Girls Club in Boyle Heights for 32 years, knew it was a silent plea for help.

The absent father and the mother hobbled by kidney problems were less important than the real message: “It can be a difficult neighborhood, and a dangerous one,” Zdravje said.

Drugs and gangs pulled Mejia’s older brother out of orbit; an early pregnancy saddled his sister with too much responsibility, too soon. Mejia is 25 now, and a college student.

He also works at the club that made the difference for him. “Without it, I think I would have gone the other way,” Mejia said.

Since its opening in 1949, the club has helped thousands of children navigate their way to adulthood through the maze of social ills that claim so many others. The club uses everyday tools to prepare its 145 members for the world: pool tables, computers, chips, soda, books. There’s a lesson in every activity, and a set of rules that, aside from an annual fee of $4, is the only cost of admission.

Homework comes first, during the “power hour.” Children earn chits for completed assignments, and spend their earnings at a “store” selling everything from bags of chips to Dodgers baseball caps and sidewalk scooters.

There, the children, from 7 to 17, learn to budget and save. A bag of chips is $2, but a scooter costs a cool $100.

Even during games of Foosball, pool, chess and dominoes, the children learn social skills and responsibility: When you check out a pool cue, say “please” and “thank you.” Respect your opponent. Show your membership card.

Children can create their own Web sites in a computer lab, learn woodworking in the crafts room, or study in a small library.

Club members volunteer for graffiti removal and trash pickups in the neighborhood. For three graduating members every year, there’s a $10,000 college scholarship.

Most staff members are alumni -- adults who appreciate what the club once did for them. Less known than the outlaws and thugs who give the neighborhood a bad name, they’re products of Boyle Heights, too.

“Look at these children. They’re wonderful,” Zdravje said, as a group huddled over homework recently. “We just have to help them be wonderful.”

This season, The Times is featuring organizations that have received grants from the newspaper’s annual Holiday Campaign.

The Variety Boys and Girls Club received $15,000 raised last year.

*

HOW TO GIVE

Donations (checks or money orders) supporting the Times Holiday Campaign should be sent to: L.A. Times Holiday Campaign, File No. 56986, Los Angeles, CA 90074-6986.

Please do not send cash.

Credit card donations can be made on the Web site:

www.la times.com/holidaycampaign.

All donations are tax-deductible. Contributions of $25 or more may be acknowledged in The Times unless a donor requests otherwise, though acknowledgment cannot be guaranteed.

For more information about the Holiday Campaign, call (800) LATIMES, Ext. 75771.