Boys & Girls Club gets a home of its own

A new modular building at the King-Kennedy Memorial Center in Modesto represents a big step for The Boys & Girls Club of Stanislaus County.

The club has been operating since 2012, but all of its programs are located at schools, said Roxanne Bernal, outcomes and measurement coordinator for the organization.

“That limits the amount of kids we can serve,” she said. “We can only serve the kids at those schools.”

With the completion of the modular building, the club can provide services and activities to more children.

“It’ll be the first standalone Boys and Girls Club in Stanislaus County,” Bernal said. The organization hosted a ribbon cutting and tours of the facility on Friday afternoon.

The Boys and Girls Club provides programming “for kids to build character and leadership skills,” Bernal said. That includes lessons in having healthy lifestyles, as well as just giving children “a safe place they can go and be themselves.”

Participants pay a $10 annual membership fee. The new club is open to any child from the ages of 6 to 18 in Stanislaus County, Bernal said.

For more information, call 209-222-5826 or go to bgcstanislaus.org

This story was originally published October 7, 2016 at 6:20 PM with the headline "Boys & Girls Club gets a home of its own."