The going has been slow for the nascent Boys and Girls Club of the Valleys. Although the actual building has been completed and ready to go for nearly a year, the funding that would allow after-school programs for the youth of Scotts Valley and the San Lorenzo Valley to begin has yet to materialize.
According to Corky Roberson, president of the organization’s board of directors, in order for the facility to open its doors, the Boys and Girls Club of the Valleys must be officially recognized by the national organization. To do that, he said, an entire year’s operating costs — including staff salaries — must be raised.
“We’re going to need about 250-300,000 dollars in the bank to show the Boys and Girls Club of America that we have the year’s worth of funding,” Roberson said. “Once we do, they’ll give us our charter and we’ll be able to open our doors.”
Though he admitted that momentum has slowed somewhat on the organization’s progress, as the board of directors — which numbered more than 20 people at one point — now has fewer than five members, this summer would be the kick-off a series of events and fundraisers that he hopes will renew interest in the project.
“Right now we’re basically at the fundraising part of it,” Roberson said. “We would love to open in a year, but that’s a lot of money to raise.”
The first step, he said, will be to spruce up the exterior of the property, located at 5060 Scotts Valley Drive. The building itself sits back, away from the roadway, and is surrounded by a large parking lot and a ring of overgrown vegetation.
To help with that, the staff of the Santa Cruz branch of real estate firm Keller-Williams elected to dedicate its annual day of community service — called the “Red Day” — to improving the site of the future Boys and Girls Club of the Valleys.
“We really want to do something for the Scotts Valley community,” said Virginia Lee, one of the organizers of the event.
On Thursday, May 14, some 80 members of the Keller-Williams staff will be on-site, doing landscape work, planting flower beds, painting stripes on the parking area, installing fencing, and assembling furniture.
“We choose a different project every year,” Lee said. “We just get down and make it happen.”
“It’s a big project,” Roberson said, adding that the organization has received donations of materials from Central Home Supply and Knox Roofing. “We got a donation from Central Home Supply, bark and mulch … Warren Knox has donated two Knox Boxes.”
He said that the beautification project will help generate interest in the project, as well as create a more completed image of the facility as it hosts fundraiser events, such as a recent mixer for the Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s going to make a huge difference,” Roberson said. “(Right now), it basically just looks like a rundown piece of property.”
The property was purchased in 2012 for $1 million by Joe and Linda Aliberti with the intention of converting the two-acre parcel of land into a destination for the youth of the Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley communities.
Joe Aliberti, a retired building contractor, came out of retirement to supervise the building’s transformation from a decrepit former recreational vehicle storage building into a modern facility that features a kitchen, activity rooms, a computer lab, and offices for the eventual staff.
Once construction on the building wrapped up about a year ago, the Alibertis turned the project over to the organization’s board of directors.
Moving forward, Roberson said that, in addition to seeking out much-needed volunteers and fundraiser opportunities, the organization is seeking someone with experience writing grant applications.
Though the details were not available by the Press-Banner’s deadline, Roberson said that plans are already in the works for the first fundraiser of the summer season, a prime rib dinner hosted by the Scotts Valley Moose Lodge.
For more information, or to get involved, contact Corky Roberson at [email protected]
