Organizational History
Recognizing a need for a youth service organization, ten local business men and women founded the Boys Club of Huntington Beach on July 13, 1967 with the help of the Anderson Trust Fund and local business. The Board of Directors purchased a two-story barrack from the local VFW and in August of 1967 the Clubs first Executive Director was hired. Soon after, the doors were opened to the boys of Huntington Beach.
As the Boys Club opened in Huntington Beach, the Fountain Valley J.C. ‘s made a similar commitment to the Boys in Fountain Valley by founding the Fountain Valley Boys Club. Land was made available behind the Fountain Valley drive-in for one dollar a year. A local development company donated their sales office and agreed to move it to the site. The Club was opened and in 1968 a metal building was erected on the same site.
Then, in 1974 with the help of local service groups, city officials, and a donation from the family of Lt. Cmd. Charles R. Lee who had been killed in action serving his country, the Girls Club of Fountain Valley opened its doors to the girls of the community. In 1976, the Club rented a three-section trailer owned by the City of Fountain Valley, near the corner of Euclid and Ellis, for one dollar a year.
As the years passed, all of the Clubs grew. In 1979, the Girls Club of Fountain Valley began accepting boy members and changed their name to the Girls and Boys Club of Fountain Valley-Huntington Beach. Shortly after, in 1980, with a simple change of their name the Boys and Girls Club of Fountain Valley began accepting girls as members. Huntington Beach followed and changed their name to the Boys and Girls Club of Huntington Beach in 1982. A growing need for services caused the Girls and Boys Club of Fountain Valley-Huntington Beach to outgrow its location that year and moved its programs to Wardlow School in Huntington Beach.
Combining efforts to better serve the community happened in 1983 when the Board of Directors of the Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach Boys and Girls Clubs voted to merge the two organizations. The merger formed the Boys and Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley, and the organization now served two cities in three locations.
More than twelve years passed before the two remaining organizations decided that in the interest of better serving the community, to merge their organizations. In December of 1995 the Girls and Boys Club of Fountain Valley-Huntington Beach and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley merged forming one large youth serving organization. Today we are called the Boys and Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley operating two school age youth facilities in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley, two licensed preschools in Huntington Beach, and a performing arts center in Fountain Valley.
National History
New Haven, Connecticut, it is the late 1800’s, there is unemployment, poverty and misery. It is eight years since the end of the war and the streets swarm with boys from 7 to 17 years of age. Most of these are war orphans, while others have been deserted by mothers who could not care for them. They travel in packs of four or five hundred.
The ladies of the United Workers decided their first project should be the establishment of a coffee shop and reading room for men, in an effort to keep them from the saloons. When the shop opened, in marched a group of street boys to occupy advice from a group of men. This group suggested they find another location away from the coffee shop and the men would entertain the boys. A site was found and the ladies placed a sign over the doorway which read “Boys Club”. Someone was needed to oversee the new establishment, a senior from Yale was hired, John Collins, for one dollar a week plus board.
Three years later the Reverend John C. Collins began promoting Boy’s Clubs in other cities. Unable to obtain the support of churches, he was able to garner support from local businessmen who were willing to pay to get the boys off the streets. This is how Boys & Girls Clubs of America began.
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