Boys & Girls Club expanding, welcoming new leaders

The Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma County is expanding, opening
new doors in both Healdsburg and Geyserville and welcoming two new
senior leaders.
With the recent opening of a club in Geyserville and a second
location in Healdsburg, Boys and Girls Clubs Co-CEOs, Jennifer and
Jason Weiss found it was time to bring in a few more leaders to
complete their team.
“These women join an experienced, successful, and dedicated team
of leaders. They bring the kind of passion and success we strive to
foster in each staff member,” Jennifer Weiss said. “Bringing on
enthusiastic team members, like Kathleen Kelly and Michelle
Edwards, will help us bring a Boys & Girls Club to every child
in Sonoma County who needs or wants one, which is our ultimate
goal.”
Over the past three years the organization has expanded from
three clubs to 11 clubs and moved from serving 300 children a day
to 1,200 children per day. Two months ago a second Healdsburg
location opened at the Foss Creek Court Apartments to serve the
large population of children that live there, following the October
opening of a new club in Geyserville.
“What is fun about this new location (Geyserville) is that it is
on a school site and the whole school only has about 120 kids and
almost every student in the school is signed up at the Boys and
Girls Club,” said Weiss. “It was really neat to see how much that
community was really yearning for something productive for kids to
do after school.”
All three of the North County clubs will be overseen by Kathleen
Kelly, who comes to the Boys & Girls Club as the new area
director after five years at Ursuline High School. There she
focused on marketing, admissions, resource development and
community relations. She said she looks forward to continuing her
work in the youth development field and collaborating with the
North County community noting, “I love working with children and am
passionate about giving each child the opportunity to succeed.”
Michelle Edwards will join the club as their new marketing and
resource development manager after coordinating Mike McGuire’s
successful bid for 4th District Supervisor. Commenting on her new
role, she remarked, “I’m excited to remain connected to the
dedicated residents of Sonoma County, this time advocating for our
future leaders-the youth of this county.”
Boys & Girls Club programs are designed to develop
self-confidence, life skills, and academic success. The
organization seeks to enable all young people to reach their full
potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.
“We know that all kids need three things, caring relationships
with adults, meaningful opportunities to participate in and then
they need the people in their lives to have high expectations of
them,” said Jennifer.
Currently the three clubs house almost 300 children including 60
teenagers for before and after school programs. In June the clubs
summer camps will open offering 50 days for $50 from 7 a.m. to 6
p.m.
“It really speaks to the fact that every child that wants a club
adventure can have one,” Kelly said.
For more information on the Boys & Girls Club visit,
www.bgccsc.org.