The club, which provides before- and after-school care, has run out of the money it needs to remain open. It will put the lock on the door at the end of Friday.
By BETH N. GRAY
Published September 10, 2003
[Times photo: Kevin White]
After Friday, David Vulpus, 11, won't be able to do his homework in the gym of the Boys & Girls Club of Hernando County.
SPRING HILL - Ginny Wright's voice cracked intermittently as she spoke.
She had just listened to the bad news: The board of directors of Boys & Girls Clubs of Hernando County announced that the club would be closing after Friday because its money is depleted.
Wright expressed lament, disappointment and anger.
The club, which has billed itself since its inception in the fall of 1999 as "The Positive Place for Kids," has provided before- and after-school weekday programs for children ages 6 to 17, mostly children of working parents.
"Four days to find something?" Wright asked.
Wright's daughter is among some 70 Boys & Girls Clubs members who regularly show up between 2:30 and 6:30 p.m. at the concrete block building at 5404 Applegate Drive for a variety of health and fitness activities, homework assistance, prevention education, and programs in reading, character development and cultural diversity.
They tap at computers and they converse with mentors.
Since Sept. 2, the club also has opened its doors from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m.
At a gathering Monday evening of some 50 people, mostly parents, Carol Freeman, treasurer and spokeswoman for the club's board, read from a prepared statement.
"The reasons for the closing are many and complex," Freeman said. "But to put it simply, the club's debts and expenses now far outweigh its income. . . . The club's finances allow it to remain open only through this Friday."
Freeman said the board hopes the closing is temporary and that money will be forthcoming to reopen.
But even a temporary closing would be troublesome, several audience members said.
"That's going to make latchkey kids out of some of these children," said Fred Montgomery, whose daughter-in-law, Rose Montgomery, is the program director for the club.
"Maybe a parent won't be able to work. To tell (parents) they have one week to find another place for your kids, that's outrageous."
Wright said the board's action was "unethical."
"You dropped a bomb. Do you realize what that does to us working people?" she asked.
Wright said her daughter, a seventh-grader, is too old for day care and too young to stay at home alone.
Said Freeman: "I truly empathize with you. I fully understand."
Pressed for details of the club's finances, Freeman was vague. She would not disclose to the audience information about the club's current budget or accounts.
"In three days," she said, "I'll have a better handle on them."
She's been staying up nights studying the finances, she said.
"I am going to get answers. I am going to get to the bottom of this," she said. "I'll let you what I know as soon as I know it."
Board member Jim Knight said the club needs $20,000 immediately and $60,000 long term.
Its expenses, mostly for salaries for a director and three staffers, run about $9,000 a month, he said later in response to a reporter's question.
While the club received a $35,000 grant from the state Department of Education this fiscal year, Knight concurred with Freeman that other grants have dried up and donations have dwindled in the tight economy.
Wright argued that the board should have foreseen a coming financial crisis and should have notified parents this summer so they could make alternative arrangements for their children.
But the crisis was realized only recently, board member Chris Kingsley said.
"The money available last year isn't this year," Kingsley said.
In response to audience skepticism, Kingsley said Freeman had not been deceitful.
He noted that fees paid by families - $10 to $25 a week, based on a sliding income scale - do not cover expenses. The board is considering a fee restructuring, Kingsley said.
Trying to return black ink to the bottom line, the board, which normally schedules monthly meetings, has been gathering every week recently, members said.
"You don't know how hard we've worked," Kingsley said. If the board could have done something else, pursued some other avenue of funding, he said, it would have.
"We all have jobs, and we are all volunteers," Freeman said. "We have not been able to get people to join the board. Why don't you volunteer?" she challenged the crowd.
"We weren't asked to volunteer. I wasn't," said LaTanya Morris, whose 7-year-old daughter has been a regular at the club for a year.
Morris and others said they still want more information - more answers.
Kingsley proposed another open meeting, which was set for 6:45 p.m. Thursday at the club. In the meantime, wheels will continue to turn.
Roberts said he and his friends would be willing to knock on doors, seeking donations.
"You tell us right now what you need," he said.
In attendance at Monday night's meeting, Roberts noted, were at least two associates of Wal-Mart, the retail giant known for its community donations. Maybe Wal-Mart could be tapped, he suggested.
Wal-Mart presented the club with a $1,000 check in April, which represented proceeds from its Community Good Works program.
The local Kiwanis Club has been a perennial donor and foresees a minimum $4,000 contribution from a benefit golf tournament Oct. 8 at Seven Hills. Board member Will Freeman said the field could accommodate 160 golfers, which would raise $160,000 for the club.
Carol Freeman gestured to representatives from Oak Hill Regional Hospital and the band Gemini, who were at Monday's meeting offering to help.
"I think when people realize our plight, we'll be back on track," she said.
Added board member Eddie McConnell: "We're not giving up. We have to stop, regroup and go forward."
