Boys & Girls Club Benefit Raises $20K

By Patric Hedlund

The president of the Frazier Mountain Boys & Girls Club was ecstatic this week as she announced that the Heart of the Mountain benefit held at Tejon Ranch Company’s Lebec hacienda last month succeeded in raising enough money to pay the group’s debts and to launch it into the new school year to continue serving the mountain’s children.

Linda MacKay reported Thursday, Aug. 5: “[The] final number for the Heart of the Mountain event was $20,000 net! We did much better than we thought we would. It looks like we’re all caught up with Bakersfield.”

The news was a bright ray in a financially gloomy year. The local group had fallen into a debt situation with the Bakersfield Boys & Girls Club association, which writes checks to cover the operational costs of the local club, but which must be reimbursed through local fund-raising and fees.

The Frazier Mountain club will change locations as it enters its fifth year. It began on Park Drive across from Frazier Mountain Park. It will move to a site just east of Ace Hardware, near Frazier Park school.

“We will open up in our new site at the Assembly of God Church [on Mt. Pinos Way] when school starts August 18,” MacKay reports. The new site is within walking distance of Frazier Park school and will be much more visible, so “We expect to attract more families who can pay for services,” MacKay said. The club provides safe, creative and stimulating after-school programs for the community’s youth. It has served well over a thousand boys and girls with study programs and vacation art camps.

This is part of the August 13, 2010 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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