The Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon cutting to celebrate the recent building upgrades to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Maria Valley location on Railroad Avenue in late February.
Major renovations were made to the location’s gymnasium and kitchen. The general exterior of the building also got a facelift.
“This building has been through a complete transformation, inside and outside,” said Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Maria Valley Executive Officer Jeremy Deming in a release. “It just looks completely different than it did a couple of years ago.”
The renovation projects were funded through grants from the city of Santa Maria and the Santa Barbara Foundation as well as donations from the community.
“It was so meaningful that we had all these people that were behind us in these efforts,” Deming said in the release. “So we thought this is essentially a new club. Let’s reintroduce this club to the community and say thank you.”
Deming added that the success of the Boys & Girls Clubs would not be possible without the support of the housing authority, local businesses, school districts, and other organizations like the YMCA and PCPA.
“Those collaborative partnerships are actually crucial to our ability to continue operations year to year,” Deming said in the release. “Because without that help and that extra hand, we would be limited in our capacity to fulfill the needs of the community.”
The Boys & Girls Clubs Railroad location is at 901 N. Railroad Ave., Santa Maria. More info: 922-7763 or bgcsmv.org.
This article appears in Mar 9-16, 2017.