Boys and Girls Club gala raises funds for youth scholarships

Welcome back to Good Day Live. I'm A.J. Janibel. Just about 11.30 on your Thursday afternoon and we got some awesome folks coming to talk to us from the Boys and Girls Clubs of King County. These are organizations throughout all of King County who provide after school opportunities for students, weekends opportunities for students, and it's kind of this amazing situation where a lot of the kids who go through the programs then come back and help out. So they had their big weekend gala this past weekend. I am looking at some cool pictures from the gala. Lori Bay with the Boys and Girls Clubs of King County joining me. Lori, is that the Super Bowl trophy that you guys have right there? Is that what I'm looking at right here? Yeah, it's the Lombardi trophy with two legends and Seahawks great Euchenna Nuoso. So, yes, that's exactly what it is. let's talk about the the gala because this is something that you guys do every year and it's such a huge event for the organization can you tell me about it tell me the significance of it and i know it's in the past now but you know as you guys are probably already starting the preparations for next year um what actually happened this weekend yeah the um our gala is an annual event and this is our chance and our opportunity to get the whole community together to really raise funds for the work that we do. So we serve over 10,000 kids across King County, 34 clubs spread all out. And we really raise money for scholarships. So young people all have access and opportunity to the programs that they need in the out-of-school time hours. So our goal has always been a million dollars, and that goes directly to subsidize young people. But this weekend was incredibly special because we were able to borrow the Lombardi trophy for a few hours and to celebrate the goodness. Uchenna Nuoso came, and that's a great picture right there. You have legend Norm Johnson and Edwin Bailey that also came to support our amazing evening. So it was an incredible amount of fun. So with the work that you guys do, I think that's so interesting to note. A lot of that is funded by events like this gala, but you guys are spread out throughout King County. So it's not just Seattle, it's the entire county. You said 30 plus clubs. And just if you don't mind, I know everybody's probably heard of the Boys and Girls Club, but exactly how does it work? What does it do? I mean, how does it impact young people in the community? Yeah, so we are the number one youth development organization in the country, and we're all about belonging. So we architect, so young people always have a place to feel welcome, a place where they can explore, a place where they feel safe during those out of school times. And the reality is young people are always looking for a place to belong. If you're like me and you have a little one at home, the first question on the first day a school is who am I gonna sit with at lunch? So kids are always looking for a place to belong, and we wanna make sure that young people always have a safe place. So in these places, we offer over 50 programs, whether it's academic enrichment, it's athletics, it's arts and crafts, it's you name it, we have it. But we really focus squarely on youth development and leadership development. So our teens are doing leadership development skills. They join a club called Keystone. Middle school kids join Torch Club. And every year it comes together with other Keystone kids from across the country where they can put their leadership skills to work. And then beyond that, we have a big workforce development. So we are truly about serving young people from kindergarten readiness all the way up to workforce development and giving them access to programs, not just here in the county, but nationally. across the country. What's so cool about the work that you guys do is the connections that you have as this national organization. We're seeing some of the pictures from the gala this past weekend. But one of the coolest things that we got to talk about a few months ago was when the World Cup was in town, several members of your clubs got to be on the pitch for one of the matches and hold the flag and stand next to these world-renowned athletes. So not only is it giving them the opportunities after school or on the weekends to kind of find community, but to make these connections, too. I think, too, with Field Day, more recent, you have these different organizations. The Seahawks are in the field and you have the dance team and all of these different groups. So these kids are not only getting the opportunity to have something to do, but the things they're doing are amazing. Yeah, and that's right. When you support a Boys and Girls Club kid in King County, you're actually not just supporting what that young person experiences, but all the access they have to everything that comes nationally and even locally. And AJ, you hit the nail on the head. We have the honor of nominating young people to be on the pitch for a World Cup game, that's amazing. But what's powerful about all of this is at the the end of the day it tells a young person that they really matter um and that um there's there's more in front of them and there's lots of opportunity and i think that is just um so powerful for a young person to hear um and that's that's the the fuel for the work that we do every day yeah and you guys stay busy um i think this weekend you have a halloween related event um And then next week, you also have something going on with the Seattle Storm. So you have these back-to-back events for the kids. Can you tell me what the schedule looks like for the Halloween Hoopla in the Wallingford? Yeah, that's right. Halloween Hoopla is so much fun. And these events are really, I can't say free. They cost a dollar or two dollars, but pretty much. But it's really these community events and that our teenagers actually put on. So our Keystone kids, kids that are in our leadership program, they put together these beautiful haunted house things, the club gets transformed, and then the gym is filled with games and the whole community comes out. So thousands of people come out. I work the games and I'm exhausted and the time flies so fast because it's so much fun. But that's an example of one event that's happening in Wallingford. And then we start rolling into all of our Thanksgiving events at 11 clubs across the county. And then more specifically, this is where our partners have been amazing. The Storm has been doing clinics for our young people all across the county. So this weekend, they're back at it at Rotary. A few weeks ago, they were out of the Eastside in Sammamish. And so these are the types of things that we love to offer our community. And they love it themselves because they come out and they get to watch their kids um have a great old time so let's talk about this weekend it is fun because it is the season um what is this is this for the whole community is this only specific for members of the club uh wallingford hoopla yeah it's for everybody oh come on down come on aj i want you to come down um there's a really awesome beanbag toss that's very difficult to win um and everyone comes out in full costume which is super fun um but yeah please come on down um yeah it's a great event it's a great time for community um and the kids that lead it yeah so this is the wallingford club is hosting the halloween hoopla that's this saturday starting at six going to nine uh kind of like a fall festival haunted carnival style everyone's welcome a dollar to get in um that's something for for everyone and if you're a member of the boys and girls clubs you already know about it but if you're seeing this for the first time and you're interested you can come by and i'm sure learn more about it as well yeah and then of course after the weekend's over you got more fun tuesday is the the basketball clinic with the seattle storm that is a free uh youth clinic at the rotary club um for kids ages 5 to 15 and that is just for the the members of the club correct yes uh registration is required um but definitely we have a link on our website and so if you're not a member of club this is a great way to get uh introduced in so go ahead and check it out um yeah where could uh lori people find more information if they want to kind of look up and get involved yeah definitely check out positiveplace.org um and you'll see registration link for um the seattle storm event at rotary and then of course too you can go online and sign up if you've always been interested in the boys and girls clubs but you haven't signed up or looked into it and you can go online and whether it's the ones here in King County or in general, all the information for folks would be available online. That's right. Yeah. Thanks, AJ. You can register, you can learn about our programs and if so willing, definitely donate. It enables us to do these free events all across the county and it enables young people to continue to go to club. Yeah. Awesome events. Awesome work that you guys do. You know, when we were in the the ballard club talking to you guys for the the fifa world cup story everybody was having so much fun there's dozens of kids running around it's in the middle of the summer and then uh field day in the Capitol Hill neighborhood how many people how many kids were at that event oh field day was close to almost 500 kids from all across the county it's the end of their summer summer camp season uh which is a lot of fun yeah so hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids um getting to kind build community, make friends and have stuff to do outside of school hours. Lori, thanks for taking some time to talk to me today. Thank you so much, AJ. And thank you always for your support and your advocacy. Appreciate it. Good luck this weekend. It sounds fun. Yeah, it's going to be a blast. Thanks.