Company Gives Oxnard Youth Club a Boost

A multimillion-dollar renovation of the Boys & Girls Club near downtown Oxnard came closer to fruition Thursday with a $300,000 gift from a local business.

Haas Automation, a manufacturer of high-tech machinery that employs 700 people in Oxnard, made the donation, the single largest from one organization.

Company President Gene Haas is asking Boys & Girls Club officials to begin a fundraising drive to match that amount.

“I’ve gotta tell you, he’s the type of individual who feels it’s his responsibility to give this type of donation to organizations that affect his community, his workers, his business,” former Oxnard City Councilman Tom Holden said. “I think that all businesses should step forward to some degree for their communities.”

Last year, amid a community outcry, Boys & Girls Club officials laid off the four employees at the 7th Street center and closed its doors. Club officials said the facility’s leaky roofs, crumbling ceilings and cramped, dingy restrooms were unsafe for its 400 members.

Parents and children, upset about the abrupt firing of a longtime coach and concerned their children would have no place to go, protested at City Hall and wrote letters to local legislators. They said the building had never been cited for health-code violations and doubted that officials could raise the money to renovate the facility.

Boys & Girls Club leaders said the closing was temporary and promised to reopen by the end of 2003, but raising funds has been a challenge.

Officials hope to raise $2.1 million for three years of operating funds and capital improvements at the 50-year-old gymnasium. They could reopen the facility with half that amount, but the $2.1 million would allow them to do a complete restoration and expand educational programming.

“This particular site serves a population of kids in the city of Oxnard who truly, as the statistics show, have no other options,” said Holden, a Boys & Girls Club board member. “At this point, anything short of a full-service facility wouldn’t benefit our kids.”

Through a combination of private and local donations, Boys & Girls Club officials have raised an additional $340,000. They are also awaiting word on $2 million in state parks grants, officials said.

“It’s been a difficult time to get large gifts,” said Tim Blaylock, chief operating officer of the Boys & Girls Club. “The economy is starting to rally and hopefully by us launching this campaign today, it’ll get the word out that we are indeed reopening.”