Santa Clarita residents made a visit to the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clarita Thursday to help commemorate 50 years of service in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Dozens of community members and leaders joined in on the celebration at Newhall park on May 10.

Matthew Nelson, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clarita Valley, opened the event and described the level of commitment service the club has provided for families in the Santa Clarita Valley.

“Today we are celebrating  our 50 year anniversary of the boy and girls club we were established in 1968 it’s a milestone event for us 50 years,” said Nelson. “For the last 50 years the club has grown changed and adapted with the community and today we have two clubhouses one in canyon country one in Newhall and we’re serving over 5,000 kids a year by providing a safe place after school a making sure all the kids in Santa Clarita have an opportunities  to be successful in life.”

Club staff worked together to set a stage for the 50 year celebration which included a brief reception, birthday cake and tour of the club house.

Audiences at the celebration were treated to a short presentation by club members who shared a bit of club history.

“In early 1968 a group of community minded Santa Clarita Valley citizens convened to discuss the growing problem of unsupervised youth in a growing population, said Roman, an elementary school-aged member of the club. “March 20th, 1968 the Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation in San Francisco approves a grant of 24,000 dollars to fund the program for the  Newhall, Saugus area.”

Mayor Laurene Weste recognized the club for their service and presented staff with a certificate honoring the milestone.

“You have made the difference in hundreds of thousands of kids lives and their families, and that what this is what it’s about future generations,” said Weste. “Did you hear them your club members they’re bright articulate wonderful giving loving people and they’re learning here they wouldn’t  learn that aslatch-key, they wouldn’t learn that by themselves they wouldn’t that out on the street they learning that right here.”

Frank Giardina, the first “Boy of the Year” in California, joined in on the celebration to discuss how the Boys and Girls Club helped him as a troubled youth.

“In 1968, I was 14 years old, and was the first boy of the year in the state of California. I had no idea what that meant,” he said. “They invited me to the odyssey restaurant to hand out brochures at the door of this awards presentation, then they started talking about this youth that was going in the wrong direction, spent a little time in juvenile hall and was the president of a gang. I’m saying to myself, ‘gosh this person sounds a lot like me.’”

At 14, Giardina said, he was going through a hard time growing up in early Santa Clarita Valley, to the point his mother gave him an ultimatum to either join the Boys Club or the Marines.

At that presentation in 1968, Giardina was awarded the Boy of the Year award because of his success in turning his life around with the support of the Boys Club.

For many years after Giardina stayed connected to the Boys and Girls Club first as a member then eventually as a counselor when he turned 18.

“I came up with 20 friends in the late 60’s I grew up with,” said Giardina, “18 of them have committed suicide, two of them are dead…trying to rob a bank, so if it wasn’t for the Boys Club, I’m quite sure I would be a statistic right now and you wouldn’t have someone to interview.”

The Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clarita has been a resource for families in the community for 50 years and officials expect to continue programs and services for future generations.

Anyone interested in becoming a member or information about programs and services click here.

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