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<\/p>\nAfter three years in the making, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Scottsdale\u2019s newest site on the Tonalea Middle School campus is open and accepting kids.<\/p>\n
The $10 million, 27,000-square-foot Steve and Maria Sanghi Boys and Girls Club opened Aug. 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first day we opened we had around 300 kids come down and take a look, and right now we\u2019re working our way to having 200 of those kids coming each day,\u201d Boys and Girls Club of Greater Scottsdale Chief Executive Officer Ivan Gilreath said.<\/p>\n
The facility includes a 13,000-square-foot club made from a number of remodeled Tonalea buildings the school didn\u2019t need when it switched from a K-8 school to a middle school serving just kids in sixth through eighth grade; a brand new 12,000-square-foot gymnasium and a 2,000-square-foot performing arts center \u2014 something no other Boys and Girls Clubs in Scottsdale have.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Boys and Girls Club is right here on our campus and it\u2019s just so convenient for our students to be able to take advantage of all the resources that they have,\u201d Tonalea Principal Robert Villa said.<\/p>\n
The new facility features a maker space with 3D printers, an audio studio where kids can create podcasts, a gym \u2014 with equipment from Planet Fitness \u2014 and of course places to do homework.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have a garden, which is an area where we\u2019re going to teach kids how to grow food for themselves and how to prepare food,\u201d Gilreath said. \u201cThat\u2019s part of our healthy habits program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Any kid enrolled in Tonalea\u2019s after-school program can use the facility for free.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a full Title I program here so all of our students receive free breakfast, free lunch as part of the program here,\u201d Villa said.<\/p>\n
And yes, the new club will also feed kids after school.<\/p>\n
Other kids can go there, too, but there is a income-based fee.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s even a bus that brings kids from Tonalea\u2019s feeder schools \u2014 Hohokam Elementary and Yavapai Elementary schools \u2014 to the facility after school.<\/p>\n
Pima Elementary School also fed into Tonalea but was closed\u00a0 this school year as part of the phase I portion of a program to decrease the district\u2019s footprint in light of a nationwide trend of declining enrollment at public schools and low state funding.<\/p>\n
Gilreath said the idea for the new club was pitched to him by Scottsdale Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Scott Menzel around three years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew he had this extra space that he wasn\u2019t going to be utilizing, and he had a need for his kids from this school to have somewhere to go because after school they were just hanging out on the school grounds and hanging out at the Circle K,\u201d Gilreath said. \u201cThey were just doing other things that kids shouldn\u2019t do between 3 and 6 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilreath then took the idea to his board of directors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mission of the Boys and Girls Club is to be there for kids who need us the most, and my board was unanimous in that we should go there and serve those kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s when Gilreath and others launched a fundraising campaign and paid for the entire facility through donations.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo taxpayer money (was used),\u201d Gilreath said. \u201cIt was all donations from people who care about this community.\u201d<\/p>\n
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J. Graber
News Editor | Scottsdale<\/p>\n