2002 Grand National

benefits the
Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe

The Boys & Girls Club Movement

The Boys & Girls Club is a nationwide affiliation of autonomous local organizations and the Congressionally-chartered Boys & Girls Clubs of America working to help youth of all backgrounds, with special concern for those from disadvantaged circumstances, to develop the qualities needed to become responsible citizens and leaders.

While the overall youth population has declined in the last decade, the number of disadvantaged young people in America continues to grow. National statistic show an alarming increase in the number of problems which negatively impact these girls and boys and their families. In every community, hundreds of boys and girls are left to find their own recreation and companionship in the streets and spend many hours at home with no adult care and supervision. These youngsters often form groups or gangs and emulate the wrong role models, eventually finding themselves in serious trouble.

Young people, especially those at greatest risk, need responsible adult guidance. They need to know that someone cares about them and that there are concerned and capable adults to whom they can turn. They need a Boys & Girls Club.

The Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe

Tahoe's North Shore is home to a large number of low-income workers, many of them Hispanic, who staff the ski areas, summer resorts, casinos, and restaurants that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to North Lake Tahoe every year. According to the Placer County Office of Economic Development, this area has the largest impact on social welfare resources of any area in the County.

The Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe, with a clientèle that is over 50% Hispanic, is a key agency for the delivery of nutritional and educational services to this population. It is through the Boys & Girls Club that our local hunger relief organization "Project MANA" provides lunch during vacation periods to children who depend on their school lunch to get them through the day. MANA volunteers teach nutrition and self-reliance through their "Kids Can Cook" classes at the Club. And the after-school and summer programs of the Boys & Girls Club provide the daycare without which many parents would be unable to earn a living, along with the homework assistance and general personal support which enable these children to be successful in school and thus contribute to the socioeconomic progress of their family and their community.

Three Strands in the Cable

• The Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe
• The North Tahoe Public Utility District
• The Lake Tahoe Cribbage Challenge

The Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe, chartered in early 1998, grew out of the earlier "Summer at the Park" and other youth programs of the Recreation Department of the North Tahoe Public Utility District.

The North Tahoe PUD, which owns and operates the North Tahoe Community Conference Center, was an early sponsor of the Lake Tahoe Cribbage Challenge, founded by Jack Shumate in the fall of 1995 as a fundraiser for Summer at the Park, with NTPUD General Manager John Hassenplug as founding co-director. The PUD Board of Directors paid for the printing of the first tournament flyer, purchased the tournament longboards used at all Cribbage Challenge events, and donated the use of the Conference Center for the first three tournaments and for Grand National XXI, all owing to the role of the Lake Tahoe Cribbage Challenge as a fundraising organization for local youth programs.

The Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe is presently halfway through a capital campaign to build a new facility on the North Shore, a place where Executive Director Dana Fraticelli explains they will be "able to serve three times more young people in a safe, positive environment and to offer new and expanded programs, particularly for teens." Through our raffle, sponsorships, shirt sales, voluntary player donations, and other fundraising strategies, we anticipate that Grand National XXI will generate another $5,000 to $10,000 for this worthy cause.

Thank you for your continued support of the Boys & Girls Club, "the positive place for kids."