New buildings provide space for more programs

Kids clubs expanding in Agoura, Calabasas



ALWAYS LEARNING—A boy tries out a computer at the Lindero Canyon Boys & Girls Club. The club recently purchased two module buildings that will offer room for additional activities.

ALWAYS LEARNING—A boy tries out a computer at the Lindero Canyon Boys & Girls Club. The club recently purchased two module buildings that will offer room for additional activities.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley is expanding its facilities at Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills and Chaparral Elementary School in Calabasas.

Founded in 2001, the local Boys & Girls Club provides a variety of after-school programs, including sports, leadership training, art classes and career development.

The organization operates at six sites, with two clubs on Las Virgenes Unified School District campuses and four within Conejo Valley Unified School District.

The Lindero Canyon club recently bought two modular buildings that will provide extra space for expansion of club activities.

“ We have been look- ing forward to this expansion for quite some time,” said Leslie Lemus, branch director of the Lindero Canyon club. “We will be able to enhance the lives of youths by offering a variety of enrichment programs for all teens.”

The Lindero site opened two years ago. Since it operated inside one classroom, the club could only accommodate about 40 students, said Mark Elswick, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley.

The extra classrooms will make room for up to 120 students.

Now the club will be able to offer dance, robotics and academics in separate spaces instead of in one room, club officials said.

As part of the expansion, the Lindero club will be named in honor of local philanthropists Linda and David Catlin, who provided $150,000 to make the expansion possible.

The acquisition of a building for Club Chaparral in Calabasas will also allow for better programs benefiting elementary schoolchildren, club officials said.

The club, which opened in 2009, serves about 200 students day, and it has a waiting list.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley used

75,000 from reserves to buy a portable building from the parentfaculty club at Chaparral.

In addition to housing afterschool and vacation club programs, the structures will allow the club to expand the Kinder Club, which now serves about 80 kindergartners.

“We are so excited to obtain the additional rooms, which will eliminate the waiting list and allow us to serve a wider number of families,” said Anne Lee, branch director.

“The larger space will also provide more room for our homework time and enable us to accommodate more kids in the afternoon.”

There is also a naming opportunity for Club Chaparral,

Elswick said.

As part of the purchasing agreement of the new building at Club Chaparral, the Boys & Girls Clubs will buy new synthetic turf to be installed at Chaparral Elementary School, the site of the club.

“We are thrilled with our partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley,” said Dan Stepenosky, superintendent for LVUSD.

“ The Boys & Girls Clubs has provided excellent programs and care to many children in our schools . . . and the new synthetic turf going in at Chaparral Elementary will provide our students with more room to exercise, play and have fun.”

The two new classrooms at Chaparral opened for the start of the new school year on Wednesday. The facility at Lindero is being painted and will be ready for students in about two weeks.

“ We are so excited to be expanding at both Chaparral and Lindero locations and look forward to serving more kids in the LVUSD District,” Elswick said, adding that the Boys & Girls Clubs secured long-term leases at both school sites.

For more information, call the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley at (818) 706-0905 or visit www.bgcconejo.org.


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