Boys & Girls Clubs

of Huntington Valley

CEO Report

ROBERT MAYER Child Development Preschool

Dedicated January 11, 2011

WE DID IT!

The ClubHouse Academy has begun the 2011 year with a packed schedule. January was an exciting month that has already come and gone.

Our ClubHouse Theatre program has been in full swing since October 2010 while rehearsing for the upcoming show “Alice in Wonderland”. With five total casts, including an Advanced Cast, there are more than 120 participants who have been busy preparing for the late February and early March performances.

To complement our acting program, the ClubHouse Academy has incorporated additional acting classes which specialize in introductory acting, improvisational skills, character development and how to apply theatre make-up. Lastly, a new theatre and musical dance class has been added to our repertoire, which will help teach children the basic choreography and dance skills needed to perform in Musicals and Broadway shows. These five classes will help produce skilled and well-rounded actors and actresses to participate

in the ClubHouse Theatre Program.

The Dance program has been equally busy. This upcoming spring the dance program will be gearing up for the Spring 2011 Dance Recital, which will be the first of three recitals this year. So far, more than 60 children have signed up, bringing in a total of more than $3500 so far! Lastly, the cheer team and two of the advanced Hip-Hop and Dance Teams have had the opportunity to cheer and perform routines at multiple football games. This is a great experience for the girls, as they have the chance to demonstrate their skills to an audience that includes multiple spectators, and not just their own family members.

In Athletics, the Winter Flag Football league started during the middle of January. The league has over 130 participants ranging in age from 6 years old and up to 13 years old. Games are played at Mile Square Park, and the league is currently in play-offs.

ClubHouse Academy, Fountain Valley Huntington Beach Branch

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There has been a lot going on in January and here are some of the highlights. We held our annual Youth of the Year Dinner. We invited 120 members and their families for a great night of fun.

The night included recognition to all the members as well as gifts bags for each. During the evenings events we held a raffle, did a slideshow and of course announced our Youth of the Year. This year representing our club is Cierra Nicholson. Ceirra has been a member since she was a kinder and is now is in 8th grade. Cierra

is a model citizen who is constantly participating in our program. If she is not leading in an activity she is volunteering in another one. She is a shining example of exactly what we look for when members succeed at the highest level.

We also held a special remembrance day on honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. We set up our teen room with four learning stations to help teach our kids on the significance of Dr. King’s work. The four stations included; 1. I have a Dream speech, 2. He’s untimely death, 3. An I Have a Dream Wall where our kids could write special messages, 4. Rosa Parks and her impact on society. The day was very educational and helped to broaden our children’s perspective.

We also would like to send a fond farewell to Ms. Maureen Larson. Maureen dedicated three and a half years to our club and did a fantastic job. She has decided to go back to school and obtain her Master’s Degree. We wish her all the best in her new endeavors. With Maureen’s exit I would like to welcome Ms. Devon Putman as our new Program Director. Devon has been with our club for the last year and a half and I look forward to working with her.

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Robert Mayer Child Development Preschool

We have finally started settling down here at Robert Mayer Child Development Preschool! Things are starting to feel more natural and routines are in place to help staff and children feel comfortable. The children are enjoying their new environments inside and outside, and since enrollment has picked up with the start of the Spring semester on campus we have started splitting up certain groups and using the three new classrooms. Although the older kids talk about missing the swings at the old location they also talk about the cool yellow curvy slide!

Much is happening curriculum-wise; the Preschool has been focusing on friendships. The children have had the opportunity to talk about their friends and what they like best about them. They have been drawing self-portraits and adding their friends to their drawings. We celebrated “Friendship Day” on February 14th by having the children create special friendship grams and

passing them out to their friends. Staff used this project to have the children practice holding a pen or a pencil and signing their own unique signatures. Children have been mixing paint colors such as red and white to create pink or red and blue to create purple. They are amazed to see the color transform before their eyes. The Pre-K class has started incorporating a letter of the week as part of the school readiness guidelines we use to prepare these children to enter kindergarten.

So much is happening! We are constantly giving tours and registering new members. The teachers are taking pride in the new center and offering exciting ways to enhance the classroom experience. The children are evolving emotionally and blossoming in this new environment. We are enthusiastic to be here and look forward to a successful end of the school year.

Development Department

Graphics: We sent out our 2010 Annual Report, which looked so good that other Boys & Girls Clubs have contacted us to compliment us and ask who our designer and printer for it were. I was proud to share that we do all our design work in house. We also designed and printed flyers for our summer programs that will be distributed at all local schools.

Development Administration: We upgraded our donor database and are pleased with new functionality that better enables us to track capital campaign activities and prospects. Hopefully this will help the capital campaign committee and our staff be more efficient.

Big & Little Moments Annual Benefit: We finalized our theme materials and printed our new stationery and solicitation forms. We wrote and sent out our first round of auction item solicitations

and we have prepared our first round of table sponsorship solicitations. All renewal sponsorship requests going to sponsors from 2009 and 2010 are here at the board meeting, ready board members to personalize.

JMG Golf Tournament: We printed the tournament brochures and solicitation materials, sent out a mailing in partnership with Kiwanis Club of Fountain Valley and gave JMG materials to distribute to past golfers, sponsors, and prospects.

Grants: We completed reporting on our Children & Families Commission grant, the City of Fountain Valley grant, the OJP grant, and Golden West College scholarships. I also talked with program officers at Verizon Foundation and Orange County Community Foundation about potential funding opportunities that we will pursue in the next month.

The winter months have been busy at the Kingston Branch. We have had many successful programs and events happening at the Club! We would like to congratulate Bryan Hartzell, Kingston’s 2010 Youth of the Year! We celebrated Bryan all our other 2010 Members of the Month at our annual Youth of the Year Dinner and Banquet held in our gym. Our staff, the parents and children enjoyed a night dedicated to all our members in recognition for their hard work and dedication to the Club. The entire night was filled with high energy, smiles and appreciation as staff spoke highly about each member. Everyone involved had a wonderful time and enjoyed the member slideshow, award presentation and dinner. Bryan was extremely honored when his name was announced as our Youth of the Year. He is a responsible, respectful and committed member of the Kingston Branch and we are proud to have him represent our Club.

In January we started our first ever Primary Buddies Mentoring Program that encourages our teen members to assist our Primary members weekly on projects and educate them on various topics.

There are 14 dedicated teens and 40 kindergartners that are committed to the program. We kicked off the program with the teens educating the kinders on first aid and safety, such as “Stranger Danger” and steps to take when there is an emergency. Every week our teens meet with a group of 4-5 primary buddies and help them with homework, art projects and games. The kinders love the program and come to the Club excited and eager to hang

out with their teen buddy. The positive relationships that have been established because of Primary Buddies Mentoring Program are rewarding to watch.

To see the teens involved and dedicated in helping our kinders grow and develop into positive and respectful members is admirable and inspiring.

In early February we hosted a Chinese New Year Festival. This was the first time ever that Kingston has held a carnival honoring the Chinese New Year!

We started the festival with a professional dragon dance performance that left our members amazed! They then enjoyed a day filled with Chinese New Year themed festival games and activities. All our members loved the event, claiming that it was their favorite carnival thus far at the Club. Celebrating the Chinese New Year was important for our members and meaningful for a lot of our parents. It was a huge hit all across the board and we look forward to continuing the tradition next year!

Kingston Branch, Fountain Valley