SALEM- The Boys & Girls Club of Salem, Marion, and Polk counties opened up their newest location with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 28.
The new location will help an underserved area of Northeast Salem off Lancaster Drive and will be named the Epping Homestead Branch (3805 Lancaster Dr. NE, Salem).
This will be the eighth Boys & Girls Club branch in the Salem area and the first within this area of Salem. The location will be serving an area that includes 3,700 school-age children within a one-mile radius of the branch.
Club Executive Director Sue Bloom helped identify the need to better serve local children and funding gaps.
“The club conducted a needs assessment to analyze the availability and lack of after-school programs,” Bloom explained. “We had indicators of need, high-risk populations, free lunches, crime rates, and low-performing schools. Over 95% of those children (near the Homestead branch) lived below the poverty line, and less than 30% met the requirements in math, writing, etc.”
The branch expects to serve over 200 children from first grade through senior year of high school in the 26,000-square-foot facility.
“We built it as a welcoming space for our community groups to use our gym and field,” Bloom said. “We work on academic success, character and leadership development, and healthy lifestyles. All of these aspects stem from these three areas. We also have a team-building program. Our ultimate goal is to work on these core areas and provide our children of all ages with the opportunity to learn and grow, and to explore areas they haven’t been able to develop before.”
The three-acre property was donated to the Boys & Girls Club by the Larry and Jeanette Epping Family Foundation.
Larry was a local real estate developer in the Salem area and together with his wife, raised five children at the location of the branch.
“This is where the children grew up and had a safe and nurturing home, and we wanted to give the children in this neighborhood the opportunity to learn, grow, and reach their full potential,” Bloom said. “We’ve been working with their children through the foundation to make this building a reality.”
In order to have the building become a reality, The Boys & Girls Club have been in a 16 million capital fundraising campaign. Nine million went toward building and filling the building, two million is to ensure we have five years of operation in the space, and the final five million is for an endowment to provide sustainability for all of the Boys and Girls Club in the Salem area.
They have raised most of the money and have around $280,000 left to fundraise.
Children do not need to do anything special to be eligible, and families can visit their website. (https://bgc-salem.org/) to register a kid and become a member of the club.
“Ha sido increíble, y nos sentimos muy agradecidos y honrados de que la comunidad nos haya apoyado”, dijo Bloom. “Hay varios filántropos importantes que la comunidad ha apoyado. Eso es importante para el vecindario y los niños. Estamos entusiasmados con las colaboraciones”.
