additional equipment for the gym. Volunteers from the US Army provided the manpower to repaint the gym, the one room volunteers from The Home Depot were unable to complete. The final phase of the renova-tions was made possible by

Board Member Nathan Evans. Mr. Evans is a District Services Manager at Best Buy. Thanks to Mr. Evans, Best Buy and the Geek Squad donated and in-stalled a media center for our

teen room. This includes a pro-jector and screen, two flat screen TV’s, surround sound, and several gaming systems with games. The teen room has been turned into every teen’s dream room. When Club members returned to the Club in September, they were amazed by the improve-ments and can’t wait to come back each day! Thank you to everyone who helped make the Club feel more like home.

Over this past summer, our Ab-erdeen Club has gotten a whole new look! Thanks to a number of corporate partners, significant improvements were made to update the Club and make it more appealing to children and teens of all ages. All of the renovations were made possible thanks to the partnerships devel-oped by Executive Director, Randy Acosta. Mr. Acosta took his experiences at a previous organization and was able to turn them into a “new” Club for the youth of Aberdeen. The renovations started with a massive face-lift provided by more than 100 volunteers from 17 locations of The Home De-pot. The Home Depot was able to engage many of their vendors in this project including Black & Decker, Bell Nursery, Behr Paint, Graco, Scotts, American Carpet, Innovative Tile and oth-ers. Over a two day period in June, the volunteers repainted the entire Club, built and in-stalled shelving units, land-scaped the front of the building and installed new carpets.

Board members John Smack of Vulcan Materials and Diane Smith assisted by coor-dinating, cooking and serving lunch to the volunteers. Around the same time that volunteers from The Home De-pot were redoing the interior of the Club, Vulcan Materials provided an enhance-ment to the exterior of the Club. Thanks to John Smack, a new edition to the Board of Directors, Vulcan Materials donated and deliv-ered a 10.7 ton spirit rock to the Aberdeen Club. Once the paint dried, it was time to add some additional touches to the interior. Thanks to Sue Shea and The Village at Carsins Run, we were able to purchase some new furniture to go in to freshly painted rooms. EJ & Eric Henderson provided new computers for the computer lab as well as new mats and

Under Construction

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Career Exploration

2

Triple Play 2

New Faces 3

Upcoming Dates

3

Summer Fun Raising

4

Message from ED

5

Be Great… Dream

5

Hand in Hand The newsletter of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Harford County

F A L L 2 0 0 9 V O L U M E 3 I S S U E 2

S P E C I A L P O I N T S O F I N T E R E S T :

• Message from

the Executive Director

• Meet the new

Board Mem-bers and new Staff mem-bers

• Shaq Vs.

Phelps

• BE GREAT…

DREAM

Visit us at www.bgcharfordco.org

Board President Terry Sexton(left) with The Home Depot District Managers Sherre Maclin & Jim Emgee and Executive Director Acosta.

Members of the Geek Squad (back row) show the new teen room to Club members at the Aberdeen Club.

Eric & EJ Henderson with Executive Director Randy Acosta (center)

P A G E 2

Under Construction– Westminster

Triple Play: Mind, Body & Soul

Harford and Carroll County Teens Explore Careers This summer, thanks to Buffalo Wild Wings in White Marsh and Old Navy in Westminster, teens from Harford and Carroll Coun-ties were able to ex-plore potential ca-reers in retail and restaurant settings. Randy Acosta, Ex-ecutive Director of the Boys & Girls Clubs said “Our hope in these corporate

partnerships is that our kids will come away with a bet-ter understanding of impor-tant job skills such as cus-tomer service and punctual-

ity. Buffalo Wild Wings and Old Navy both have a strong commitment to the community and to preparing youth for a successful fu-

ture.” Both of these trips were a part of Ca-reer Launch, a program that exposes teens to a variety of job skills and career opportunities.

act positively with others and engage in healthy relationships. At our Edgewood Club, Mr. Darnell has been helping the

Thanks to funding from Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Coca-Cola, our Edgewood Club has been able to start implementing Triple Play: a game plan for the mind, body & soul. The goal of this pro-gram is to improve Club mem-bers’ knowledge of healthy habits, good nutrition and physical fitness and to strengthen their ability to inter-

Club members learn about geometry and positive interac-tions through “Pool Shark”. As a result of this program, Club members are learning how to accurately line up pool balls and shoot them into the pockets of the pool table and to work together. It has been a very positive experience for the Club members.

Since our Westminster Unit lacks a gym, we were in need of an attractive space that could address the inter-ests of the local teens, and having Lowe’s renovate the basement was an ideal part-nership. Within 5 days of their arrival, the Lowe’s crew had installed drywall to create storage spaces, painted the walls and ceil-ing, and laid down flooring.

Destanie, age 14 remarked “Wow, I can’t wait to hang out down here”. Thanks to the hard work and dedica-tion of Tracy and his crew from Lowe’s we now have a space available to enter-tain and positively influ-ence the teens of Westmin-ster. For more details, please contact our West-minster Unit at (410) 386-0135.

This fall, a transformation began in the basement of our Westminster Unit. Tracey Lucus, the Store Manager of the Lowe’s of Westminster along with several other employees, descended upon our Club to begin a renovation of our dreary basement, previously used as a storage space. Lowe’s of Westminster wanted to get involved.

If you or your group would like to learn more about how you can sponsor a trip or other activity for our Club mem-bers, please contact Derek DeWitt at ddewitt@bgcharfordco.org

H A N D I N H A N D T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E B O Y S & G I R L S C L U B S O F H A R F O R D C O U N T Y

Learn more about us at our updated website www.bgcharfordco.org

New Faces on the Board P A G E 3 V O L U M E 3 I S S U E 2

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Harford County is pleased to announce that Na-than Evans, John Smack and Rory White have all accepted appointments to the Board of Directors. Terry Sexton, current President of the Board of Direc-tors, introduced these new members at a recent meeting. “We are pleased that these gentlemen have all agreed to take on the challenge of providing a better future for Harford County’s youth. Their talents will enhance those of our existing Board members and will make our organization even stronger” Sexton says.

Nathan Evans is a District Customer Solutions Manager with Best Buy/ Geek Squad. He manages 15 stores and 1200

employees from Bel Air, MD to Mar-tinsburg, WV. Nathan and his wife Kimberly live in Baltimore County with their young daughter.

John Smack is the Sales Manager for Vulcan Ma-terials Company in Havre de Grace. He is a gradu-ate of Elon University.

He and his wife Liberty reside in Port Deposit with their three young chil-dren.

Rory White is a financial advisor for Edward Jones Investments in Havre de Grace. He and his wife Debbie reside in Bel Air with their two children. Rory is a graduate of

West Point and has served 6 years in the US Army in the field of aviation.

December 11: Free Holiday Movie at the Edgewood Unit December 12: Santa Sleigh 5K at the Arena Club December 20: Breakfast with Santa at Applebee’s in Aberdeen

Please make note of the fol-lowing dates: November 25: Clubs will be closing at 5 PM November 26-27: Clubs will be closed for Thanksgiving

December 23: Clubs closed at 5 PM December 24– January 3: Clubs closed for the holidays January 4: Clubs re-open for the new year!

Director of Corporate Relations. She brings more than 14 years of experi-ence in the nonprofit field, including the healthcare, association, and univer-sity arenas. Her experience encom-passes the following: individual, cor-porate, government and foundation fundraising, capital campaign and fea-sibility studies, fundraising plan devel-opment, grant writing, event planning, communications, marketing, business development and executive manage-ment. Tiffany Gills is the Executive Branch Director at our Westminster Club. Tif-fany comes to us most recently from Big Brothers Big Sisters. Tiffany is a native of the metropolitan Baltimore

area and brings a wealth of experi-ence to her new position. Jacinda Gibbons is the Unit Di-rector at our Aberdeen Club. Ja-cinda is the married mother of 7 year old twins. She is a long time resident of Aberdeen and has a degree in Community Health Edu-cation from Morgan State Univer-sity as well as graduate studies in Special Education at Loyola. Henry Harris is the Unit Director at our Edgewood Club. He is a licensed social worker associate in Maryland and is currently attend-ing Morgan State in pursuit of a Masters degree in Social Work.

In addition to the new Board mem-bers mentioned above, we are pleased to welcome a number of new staff members to our team as well. You will see many of them at community events as well as at the Clubs. Tim Wills joins the staff as the new Director of Operations most recently from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, DC with the Prince Williams County Branches. Tim brings an array of Club experience having served as a Club volunteer, board member, pro-gram and management staff. He is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. Ellen Cavanagh McNulty is our

New Faces in the Clubs

Upcoming Dates

P A G E 4

BE the ONE to make a

difference! Support the

Boys & Girls Clubs by

making a donation or

by becoming a

volunteer today! Check

out our new website

www.bgcharfordco.org

or Contact us to find

out more.

Summer Fun Raising!

Shaq Vs. Phelps Club members from Har-ford and Carroll Counties were treated to a unique opportunity this summer– they were able to meet Shaquille O’Neal and Mi-chael Phelps at the Mead-owbrook Aquatic & Fitness Club as a part of ABC’s reality show “Shaq Vs.” Shaq challenged Michael Phelps to a swimming com-petition and Club members were able to be a part of the production. Phelps is an honorary Board Member

and Shaq is a for-mer member of a Boys & Girls Club. As a part of the show, both men demonstrated their commitment to giving back to the community by in-cluding Club kids in the filming. Club members were thrilled to have this opportu-nity and will never forget the experi-ence!

for this fun filled event. Check out our website this spring for details on the 2010 Diamonds in the Rough Golf tourna-ment. Kiss-a-Pig is another long standing fun-filled event. Since 2002, this event has raised over $216,000 to support programs at the Clubs. This year’s pig kissers included: Chip Paradis, Dave Lynch, Sher-iff Jesse Bane, Police Chief Randy Rudy, Mayor Wayne

Dougherty, Councilwoman Mary Ann Lisanti, Major John Walker, Claudia Holman, Christian Gian-sante, Vi Ripken, Tom Cleaver and Mary Chance (not pic-tured). Many of the 2009 Pig Kissing Contenders held events throughout the county in the months of July and August. Pigs were flying everywhere!The 2009 Kiss-a-Pig Champion was Mayor Wayne Dougherty. Thank you to everyone who helped to make these two events successful!

Board Members and volunteers have been extremely busy the past few months helping to raise funds to insure that the Boys & Girls Clubs of Harford County is able to continue to provide much needed services to our community. Two major events were held recently: Diamonds in the Rough and Kiss a Pig and both were suc-cessful thanks to our many friends and sponsors! Diamonds in the Rough is a women’s only golf tournament that started in 1998. Since that time, this golf tournament has raised more than $415,000 to support the ongoing programs of the Boys & Girls Clubs. Many golfers return year after year

H A N D I N H A N D T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E B O Y S & G I R L S C L U B S O F H A R F O R D C O U N T Y

Club members look on as Shaquille O’Neal signs a photo for Executive Director, Randy Acosta

The 2009 First Place team at the Diamonds tournament: Janelle Watkins, Cher Cook-Boyle, Vi Ripken (Tournament Chair) Joanie Lovelace and Olga Perkins

Message from the Executive Director P A G E 5 V O L U M E 3 I S S U E 2

Thanks to our many friends and sup-porters, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Har-ford County continues to change lives of children and teens in communities where we are needed the most. In the short time I have been here, I have been privileged to meet some of our many supporters and to see first hand the difference your support makes in the lives of our youth. I would like to thank all of you for making my transi-tion to Harford County a pleasant one and especially for helping our youth to BE GREAT! There have been many successes over the past few months, far too many to list them all. However, I would like to take this opportunity to mention just a few and to share with you some of our upcoming plans. If you have not been out to the Clubs recently, I would strongly encourage you to set up a time to come and visit. I also encourage you to visit our website at

www.bgcharfordco.org to check out our programs and our partnerships. One highlight of this summer was Kiss-a-Pig. This is an event I had been look-ing forward to since the day I started back in February. What could be better than bringing together 11 community leaders, all soliciting votes to be named the 2009 Pig Kissing Champion! I want to thank each and every pig kisser for so enthusiastically supporting the Clubs. Your support means more than words could ever say! Another evolving success has been our new corporate partnerships with Best Buy, Vulcan Materials, the Home De-pot and others. Thanks to the leader-ship of new Board Member Nathan Evans, District Manager for Best Buy, we have a new theater room at our Ab-erdeen Club and new computers in our technology center at the Edgewood Club. Volunteers from Best Buy and the Geek Squad are continuing to make a difference through this partnership. New Board Member John Smack has brought us countless resources from Vulcan Materials including volunteers who worked with our kids on a 4th of July float and many other projects. You can read more about some of these

partnerships in our cover story. A final success I’d like to share is with our Career Launch program. This sum-mer, partners from Buffalo Wild Wings in White Marsh and Camp Old Navy in Westminster provided our teens with the unique opportunity to learn about some career options through a day long job shadowing experience. This pro-vided our teens with a chance they may never have had without these partners. Going forward, this fall we will be con-tinuing to expand our community part-nerships- with businesses, civic groups, schools, other non profits and other community leaders. We will be devel-oping and implementing a plan to find and track local Boys & Girls Club Alumni and we will be focusing on childhood obesity through the imple-mentation of Triple Play (see the story on page 2). As we continue to provide high quality programs, we will continue to rely on the support of the community. Please feel free to contact me if you have an idea for how you or your company can get more involved with the Clubs! I look forward to hearing from you and to many new successes in the future.

Going to college. Being a doctor. Being a teacher. Having a safe place to go after school. Having an adult who cares about me. These are some of the dreams of the youth who at-tend the Boys & Girls Clubs of Har-ford County. Like all children, they dream of great things for the future. They also dream of the things they need to get by today– things they would not have if not for the Boys & Girls Clubs. At the fourth annual Brawl & Ball, held recently, the theme was “BE GREAT… DREAM”. Thanks to Event Chair and Board Member,

Diane Smith, and the many people who attended and supported the Brawl & Ball, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Harford County will con-tinue to help realize the dreams of the youth in Harford County who have no where else to turn. This year alone, the event brought in close to $60,000– including 22 peo-ple who agreed to sponsor a Club member, and the dreams of that Club member, for a year. For more information on how you can spon-sor a Club member and help their dreams come true, please contact us at mbarry@bgcharfordco.org

Judge Angela Eaves was the MC for the fourth annual Brawl & Ball. She is one of the many leaders in Harford County helping dreams come true for our youth.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Harford County

100 East Bel Air Avenue

Aberdeen, MD 21001

Phone: 410-272-0010

Fax: 410-272-0012

E-mail: mbarry@bgcharfordco.org

Check out our new Web page! www.bgcharfordco.org

Westminster Advisory Board Karen Black Jeffrey Dixon Siri Hiltz Peg Kulow Lindi McNulty Sharon Morrison Lee Primm Henry Reiff Jessica Rolle Janet Shearer Deborah Sims Beth Tevis Lisa Wack Ken Weil Tom Welliver Honorary Board of Directors Mayor Michael Bennett Captain Kenneth D. Cox County Executive David Craig Pat Donovan Mayor Wayne Dougherty Senator Nancy Jacobs Delegate Mary-Dulany James Peter Karas Brian Lynch Chief Leo Matrangola Councilman Jim McMahan Theodore S. Moyer Michael Phelps Chief Teresa Walter Jay Witasick

Board of Directors Terry Sexton, President Tory Pierce, 1st Vice President Don Lewis, 2nd Vice President Julian (Jay) Meares, Secretary Brian Bynion, Treasurer Kevin Bress, General Counsel Michael Buher Matthew Calhoun Eugene Chandler Edward Coogan George Englesson Nathan Evans George Heidelmaier Sheryl Davis Kohl Jerry Lacey Mary Law Joan Lozinak Susie Thea F. Mabe Mary Martin Howard McComas, IV N.K. “Skip” Moulsdale George Mullin Lester Picker Violet Ripken Christina Rumbaugh John Smack Diane Smith Rodney Swam Thomas Welliver Rory White

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