Boys & Girls Club Reflects Donors' Passion for Youth and Community

WAITSBURG – “Ginny and I have spent years trying to answer the question, ‘what can we do to give back?’” said Dan Butler, addressing attendees at the Christian Women’s Connection luncheon in Waitsburg last week. Now they feel like they have hit on an answer. The couple are honoring their hometowns in a big way, by organizing a Boys & Girls Club to serve children in the Touchet Valley.

Butler said he grew up in Waitsburg, as did his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He said his wife feels the same type of bond to Dayton.

“We were interested in doing something with our kids, our families, and our communities to sustain a happy, healthy community,” Butler said.

“We talked a lot about what could be and we wanted kids in Waitsburg and Dayton to be super taken care of. What we want is a place for young people, from kindergarten through twelfth grade, to go after school. Ginny and I looked at each other and, almost simultaneously, said, ‘Boys & Girls Club!’”

Once they had a goal, the Butlers purchased a 7,500 building on Cameron Street, the former home of a bowling alley, and later a series of restaurants.

“We bought the building and will gift it to the nonprofit Boys & Girls Club – it won’t belong to us – and we’re going to get it up and running and the building renovated. We’re going to start a year from now, inviting kids from the Touchet Valley to come and be there, and we’re going to feed them a snack and even dinner.

“We’re hoping to work with Touchet Valley Transportation to get them there after school. We’re not going to just open up Town Hall and fill it with kids. It’s very structured but the kids don’t know it,” Butler said.

He said the club will provide space for kids to have fun, do homework, play games, make art, and there will even be an electronics room. Butler quoted a study showing that kids that attend a Boys & Girls Club two days a week do better in school and attendance goes up.

Butler’s passion for youth is palpable. “We start making young people believe in themselves again. We start making young people look in the mirror and like what they see. We start helping kids look at the next steps after high school,” he said.

Butler said there is also plenty of room for community members to participate in their vision.

“We have an opportunity for anyone who has a gift to come in to the Boys & Girls Club and share it. If there’s something that young people can learn from you, we’d like you there. We hope to put young people, older people, and the community together in that building and have something incredibly special,” Butler said.

Butler said he is not interested in creating something that will last a year or two and be gone.

“We want this to be here long after Ginny and I are gone,” he said.

Butler said that in the last two weeks, they closed on the building, put in an application for a 501c3 nonprofit status, and partnered with Boys & Girls Club of Spokane.

“We partnered with them because they know how to run a kid’s club. They know how to hire and do the infrastructure and it gives us a much better chance of creating a successful operation. Our agreement is that as soon as we say we’ve had enough, they’ll leave. In the meantime, they’re going to help us and mentor us,” he said.

Butler said the club believes strongly in hired help as opposed to volunteers and expects to employ one full-time director and 12-13 part-time employees.

Butler said Ginny’s mother gave them seed money to get things rolling and that they will be fundraising, pursuing donations, writing grants, and doing whatever they can to raise additional funds.

“The minute we’ll know it’s successful is when it’s not Ginny and Dan anymore, but it’s ‘us.’ We want to get it up and running and then we want it to be ‘us,’ that’s everybody,” he said.

---------------------------

Boys & Girls Club Needs Your Vote!

The Dayton Boys & Girls Club is in the running to receive a $25,000 grant from the State Farm Neighborhood Assist national grant competition. The club was narrowed from 2,000 competitors to make the top 200. The final grant distributions are determined by public vote. Voting opened Aug. 16 and runs through Aug. 25. A person can vote up to 10 times per day. The top 40 vote-getters will receive $25,000. As of Tues., Aug. 22, the club was number 29 but had been slipping lower in the leaderboard over the preceding days. Anyone interested in supporting this cause is encouraged to vote daily at https://www.neighborhoodassist.com/entry/1997545.