BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF OCEANSIDE’S 70-YEAR LEGACY FULL OF STARS

Nonprofit starting two-year campaign to raise $700,000

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Oceanside opened in the early 1950s with a dozen boys meeting in one room next to the Brooks Street pool. The club grew and times changed. But the focus was the same — giving kids a chance to reach for the stars.

The club’s alumni list is star-studded.

Arianna Afsar, star of “Hamilton” and former Miss California and an “American Idol” contestant, recorded music in the club’s on-site studio. Former NFL football star Willie Buchanon played baseball and basketball at the club. Famous alumni also include Olympic athlete Willie Banks, NFL player Pisa Tinoisamoa, who graduated from the club’s Gangbusters program, NFL legend Junior Seau and Grammy-nominated singer and percussionist Stokley Williams.

Recent club members have distinguished themselves with state and local awards. Teen members of the Oceanside club have taken the San Diego Youth of the Year title five of the last seven years and two of those teens were crowned California Youth of the Year.

“Not once did anyone on our team back down from the challenges we have been facing recently and I think that inspires our kids to face their challenges,” said Jodi Diamond, the club’s CEO. “With caring adults and strong mentoring programs, our youth will go on to do great things.”

This month, in honor of the club’s 70th year, the nonprofit is starting a two-year Anniversary Campaign to raise $700,000. Throughout the next two years, events are being planned to spotlight club founders, alumni and current and former board members, culminating in an “end of the campaign” soiree.

Since opening its doors in 1952, the club has grown to six locations, one main center on Country Club Lane, along with four school sites in the Oceanside Unified School District and a Sports Academy at Roosevelt Middle School in the Vista Unified School District, serving 1,400 kids, ages 5 to 18, daily and offering free after-school programs at several sites.

The staff grew from three to 58 today providing afterschool and summer activities, many of which are free or offered through scholarships to kids who couldn’t otherwise participate.

In the early 1970s, the club moved into its present Townsite location. But it was not until the early 1990s that the all-boys club expanded to include girls. In 2018, five years after renovating its Townsite building, the club finished its Center for Innovation, a 2,800-square-foot addition that includes a Culinary Arts Teaching Kitchen, STREAM Lab and Performing Arts Center.

During the early years, the programs were less structured. “Today there is more emphasis on experiential education,” Diamond said.

“One example is our STREAMING Ahead program, which provides targeted enrichment in core STEM focus areas,” Diamond said. The program provides hands-on learning through projects in science, technology, research, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The projects encourage kids to figure out creative solutions to challenges the community faces and helps youths develop skills to enter the workforce.

“Due to the pandemic, we had to pivot quickly to be able to provide the support our youth and families needed most,” Diamond said. “We contacted all 4,200 members within that first week and what we heard was heartbreaking. They were hungry.”

So club staff quickly swung into action and by May 4 started an Emergency Food Program that has served over 46,000 free meals to any youths under age 18. Although the club had to close its sites on March 13 last year, they were up and running virtually within days.

The club was one of the first to open its doors for summer camp last June, under the strictest safety protocols.

Then on Aug. 17, the club launched its new Back2school program, which gives students help with virtual learning, from 7 a.m.to 6 p.m. each weekday and provides academic intervention, homemade meals, enrichment, and the tools necessary to get them back on the path to achieve success.

For its efforts, the club was chosen as a California Nonprofit of the Year by 76th District Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath.

“The pandemic taught us something our kids are learning all the time — perseverance and resilience make all the difference,” Diamond said.