Newsletter | October 2022

Dear Friends of Boys & Girls Clubs,

 

2022 is a momentous year for Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley as we celebrate 60 years of service to the youth and families of Sonoma Valley. While we have celebrations for the organization planned in the coming months, next month is our Youth of the Year event, the annual celebration of our youth.


I always refer to Youth of the Year as the best night of the year, and it is truly my personal favorite. Youth of the Year is our premier youth recognition program for our Club members and it promotes and celebrates: 

service to the Club, community, and family, academic success, strong moral character, life goals, and

poise and public speaking ability.


At the event, we will recognize a Youth of the Year from each of our seven elementary and middle school locations. We will also hear four teens share their personal stories and how their stories have been shaped by Boys & Girls Clubs and Teen Services. Additionally, we will celebrate an Athlete of the Year from our athletics department, and the Carole Downing Volunteer of the Year. All of the incredible youth we will celebrate on November 17th exemplify our mission and are proof of the impact Clubs make in transforming and saving kids’ lives. They are the voice of hope and spirit for so many Sonoma Valley kids.


I would be overjoyed if you would consider joining us for this heartwarming event. This year's Youth of the Year event will take place Thursday, November 17th at 6 pm. Due to the construction at the Maxwell Farms Regional Park, the event will take place at Vintage House (264 First Street East, Sonoma). I very much hope you will join me for the best night of the year!


Thank you for your continued support of BGCSV.

Cary Snowden 

President & CEO

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Mental Health

Sonoma Index-Tribune: Fernanda Alvarez Cisneros and Oscar Fernandez Garcia of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley recalled how people helped them and others during the Nuns Fire of 2017. Photo taken at Altimira Middle School, where they serve as volunteers, on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. (Robbi Pengelly/Index-Tribune)

As Nuns Fire anniversary approaches, Sonoma wraps children in services

Sonoma Index-Tribune

October 7, 2022

Wellness Center opens for Sonoma Valley High, Creekside students

Sonoma Index-Tribune

September 21, 2022

Click here to donate

Recently the Sonoma Index-Tribune has featured our mental health programming as a key part of a local effort to expand the availability of mental health services, especially for children and teens.


In 2021, Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley responded to the growing unmet need for mental health services, especially in the wake of trauma from wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.


Mental health services in Sonoma Valley are underfunded and often inaccessible for most kids & families, especially those who are low-income. This is due to most services being available in Santa Rosa and the very long waitlists. When a child or teen is in urgent need of mental health support, a waitlist to receive services can be the difference between life and death.


This is why we are committed to meeting this urgent and critical need in our community, and thanks to organizations such as Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund and Impact100 Sonoma, we are now able to offer these services at no additional cost to our members.


We initiated this program, in partnership with Petaluma People Services Center, with one Counseling Trainee. The demand for the group and individual counseling we now offer has been so great that we have secured a second counselor to meet the demand.


Having youth who are aware of the need to look after their mental health, and then providing services to meet that need is a great success story for our organization and community. We are very proud of the fact that we were able to help fill the gap in these vital services and to do so in the middle of a pandemic.


We are however in need of additional funding to help sustain this invaluable program. You may make a one-time or monthly gift to our mental health program here.

Teen Services Update

Career Opportunities

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Interested in joining our team - or know someone who is? We have new job listings available to fill immediately, and we'd love to meet you! 


We have several openings but are especially excited to find a new Program Director to help lead one of our eight Sonoma Valley sites!


Visit bgcsonoma.org/careers to sign up today and learn about all the great opportunities to join our team in the future.

Youth of the Year

Join us in our annual celebration of our amazing Club members and their accomplishments! Youth of the Year will take place on Thursday, November 17th and is our premier youth recognition program for Club members. We recognize Members of the Year from each of our locations, along with the Carole Downing Volunteer award, and the Athlete of the Year Award. Our teen finalists, chosen from our Teen Services members, will share their personal stories of hard work and success. One of our teen finalists will be chosen by a selection of panelists to represent BGCSV as the Youth of the Year.


**Due to the construction at the Maxwell Farms Regional Park, Youth of the Year will take place at Vintage House (264 First Street East, Sonoma). We hope to see you there!**

Volunteer Spotlight

Cathy Williamson honored at 2022 Star Volunteer

Recently at the Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund Star Awards, we were honored to celebrate our amazing garden volunteer, Cathy Williamson. Cathy Williamson has been a supporter and dedicated volunteer of Teen Services for many years. Her incredible gardening skills and passion for high-quality food have allowed our Lovin’ Oven Culinary Academy members to create delicious and nutritious farm-to-table meals for many years. Once Boys & Girls Clubs merged with Teen Services, Cathy wanted our younger members to have the same experiences with gardening and growing their own fruits and vegetables and took it upon herself to re-energize the gardens at our Maxwell Park Clubhouse. Cathy remained engaged and committed even during the COVID months when we couldn’t maintain regular programming. Cathy’s commitment to the overall health and well-being of ALL of our members and her desire to share her expertise with gardening makes her our 2022 Star Volunteer.


Read more about the event here.

Athletics Update

Futsal & Jr. Basketball


Registration is currently open for both our Jr. Basketball and Futsal leagues.


Junior Basketball

Season starts: 11/15 – ends: 2/2

K–1st grade: M & W 5:00–7:00pm

2nd–3rd grade: T & Th 5:00–7:00pm

Learn more and register here.


Futsal

Leagues available:

U8 (1st–2nd grade)

U10 (3rd–4th grade)

U12 (5th–6th grade)

Saturdays 9AM – 6PM.

1.5 hour sessions per team.

Learn more and register here.

Want to be to first to hear about athletic league registration openings and or  athletics news? Sign up for the newsletter here.

After School

We are so pleased to share that we will once again be opening our Sonoma Charter School site on November 7th. We were forced to make the very difficult decision to close our Sonoma Charter School site for the start of the school year due to a lack of staffing, but now have enough staff to reopen the site and serve all of our wonderful Sonoma Charter School members.

As our middle and high school members began to return to Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley when the COVID-19 restrictions lifted, we learned that many of them, much like many adults, found a passion in podcasts during the pandemic.

More than ever, teens are turning to podcasts as a news source, to connect with individuals who share their interests, and as a way to express their views.  We were recently awarded a generous grant from the Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley to develop the Rotary Podcast studio and members from Teen Services recently stopped by the studio to try their hands at podcasting. The teens had a lot of fun and have lots of ideas for future podcast topics. We look forward to sharing them with you.


A very special thank you to the Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley which has been and valued and generous partner of ours for many decades.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Youth of the Year, November 17th, 2022

Sweetheart Gala & Auction, February 11th, 2023

Cowboy Cab, May 6th, 2023

Fairways Fore Futures Golf Classic, August 28th, 2023


Be the first to hear about our events!

Click here to sign up for our BGCSV Events email list.

A HEARTFELT THANK YOU TO OUR MOST RECENT SUPPORTERS

AJ Hennessy

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Alley 6 Craft Distillery

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Titleist

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Valley of the Moon Flooring

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Whole Kids Foundation

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Donors listed in bold are monthly donors.

Join them by making a monthly gift to sustain our vital programs and services.

*All gifts listed above were made during August or September. Gifts made in October will be acknowledged in our next newsletter.



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