WOODLAND HILLS : Boys & Girls Club Closer to Reality

A proposed new Boys & Girls Club in Woodland Hills is a step closer to becoming reality thanks to the approval of a merger with the San Fernando Valley Boys & Girls Club of Pacoima.

Bob Gross, a board member of the new club, said Friday that the group will launch its first major fund-raiser today and may be ready to open a club in modular buildings at the site of Serrania Avenue School by early this summer.

The idea of opening a nonprofit Boys & Girls Club in the West Valley, which would provide recreation for children, has been several years in the making, Gross said.

It could have been several years more, but last month the boards of directors of the existing San Fernando Valley facility and the proposed West Valley facility agreed to merge, Gross said.

The merger will allow the two clubs to share expertise, an executive director and some administrative services, thus cutting costs and expanding the support base for the club, he said.

The formation of the new West Valley Unit of the Boys & Girls Club will be formally announced later this spring, said West Valley board President Brad Rosenheim.

Supporters of the West Valley branch have already raised about $40,000 toward the $120,000 cost of operating a new club for the first year, Gross said.

Most of that money has come from corporate donations, he said. Today, at 10:30 a.m. at Fallbrook Mall, the organization will launch its first major push to collect individual donations.

Gross said supporters want to raise between $10,000 and $15,000 for the new club by raffling off a 9-foot-high wooden Victorian playhouse donated by the Assn. of Women in Construction.

The playhouse will be unveiled at the mall today.

Gross said the idea of opening a Boys & Girls Club in the West Valley began in 1989 because latch-key children in the area needed someplace to go.

A Boys & Girls Club can “reach children before they get into gangs,” said Rosenheim. “This will provide a place for young people to go after school.”