Club ready to meet challenge

The race is on for the Boys & Girls Club of Huntington Valley to raise $4,000 in two weeks to win a coveted spot on a philanthropic website, which would help it meet its ultimate goal of making Golden West College the first college in the state to have its own Boys & Girls Club on campus.

The club is participating in Global Giving’s U.S. Open Access Challenge to raise money from 50 individual donors before Tuesday. Huntington Valley started the challenge June 18 and have raised $435 so far, according to Tanya Hoxsie, chief executive of the Huntington Valley Boys & Girls Club.

If the organization succeeds, it will have a permanent spot on Global Giving’s website, which matches donors looking for a cause with nonprofit projects.

“It will put our name in front of millions of people all over the world,” Hoxsie said. “It will help us get to our goal. I mean, how could it not?”

The program’s goal, and the reason for taking part in the challenge, is to raise money for the state’s first school-age facility on a college campus.

There are currently fewer than 20 of these facilities on college campuses in the country, according to Laura Portier-LaLumiere director of development at Boys & Girls Club.

The project is part of the club’s Building Dreams Campaign, which will also replace the existing child development center with a new facility on three acres of Golden West College’s campus in Huntington Beach, in addition to building a two-story Boys & Girls Club and gymnasium.

The new facilities will provide 140 children a day with a place to go, 50 more than they can currently serve, Portier-LaLumiere said. The new child development center and the Boys & Girls club will be in the center of the campus, near the original site, and the current facilities would remain open during construction.

“Our kids deserve this. These kids will grow up embracing education, and going to college will be the natural next step,” Hoxsie said.

Golden West College currently has a preschool program run by the Boys & Girls Club, but the renovations will expand its services. Coast Community College District Chancellor Ding-Jo Currie said the new project will be an added value to the college and the district.

“Any time a community college organization, like ours, can partner with a community organization, it is a good thing,” Currie said. “I think it’s absolutely a good partnership.”

The new facilities would also help alleviate the long waiting lists for their current locations, Portier-LaLumiere said.

The campaign has raised more than $2 million of the $6.37 million needed to complete the three-phase project. Although the club has to raise $4,000 to be featured by Global Giving, it would be able to keep that money for its campaign.

The first stage, which will replace the existing child development center, was submitted to the Department of the State Architect in July and approval is expected any day now, Hoxsie said. Construction is estimated to begin in the next few months, but Hoxsie said another $1.5 million is needed by the end of the year to make stage one happen — something she said has been a struggle.

“It is such a critical time for kids, but it’s difficult to raise dollars for this,” Hoxsie said. “I have never in my life, and I’ve been here 30 years, heard ‘This is such an amazing project, but I can’t give any [money]’ so many times.”

The rest of the $6.37 million will have to be raised before the second and third phases, which will be built concurrently, are started. They include the two-story Boys & Girls Club and the gymnasium, Hoxsie said.

The program is looking in every corner for a way to fund the project, and while people are giving small amounts, according to Hoxsie, it is hard to find a big donor who will make the project a reality.

“I think this is one of the most valuable projects I’ve ever been a part of ... and that’s what makes it so hard to see it not happening,” Hoxsie said.

How To Help

To donate to the Boys and Girls Club of Huntington Valley, go to www.globalgiving.com.