Eric Fonoimoana Shares His Olympic Gold Story

Yesterday, our Port of Los Angeles Boys & Girls Club was visited by local Olympic gold medalist, Eric Fonoimoana. Over 100 kids from the Club and from our Barton Hill Elementary School site gathered in the gym overlooking the Port to meet Eric and hear his story of triumph.

Like many of our Club members, Eric is a South Bay resident born and raised. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney he and his partner Dain Blanton won the gold medal in beach volleyball. Eric has played professionally for more than eighteen years and has won at least one tournament for seven straight years between 1998 and 2004.

Eric Fonoimoana helps our kids win in the tug-of-war competition

After a spirited tug-of-war competition organized by Eric, the kids settled down to watch a short movie showing the famous moment when he made the final block over the net sealing the gold medal win for Dain and himself. Our youth saw Eric’s medal ceremony as the star spangled banner played over Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

Eric revealed to our kids that he was only seven years old when he saw his sister win the silver medal in swimming at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games and decided that he would do whatever it took to get to the Olympics. He is the youngest of six siblings who introduced him to volleyball as a child and challenged him to develop his athletic skills. From playing sports to doing simple chores, Eric was brought up to always finish what he started. He gave every challenge his best effort and never quit half-way through. Eric explained that it was his hard work and determination to never give up that led him to Olympic gold.

Our Club kids were thrilled to see Eric’s gold medal and were inspired by his story. As the kids passed in front of Eric to see his medal, one middle school girl informed him that she was working hard as a gymnast and wanted to go to the Olympics. Two girls from our Port of Los Angeles Club Teen Center who play on POLA High School’s volleyball team attended the event after practice to meet Eric.

Thanks so much to Eric Fonoimoana for visiting our Club and sharing his story and to our supporters at Wells Fargo for helping arrange the visit. More information about Eric and his non-profit foundation, Dig 4 Kids Education Foundation which provides academic and athletic opportunities to youth in low-income communities, can be found at www.dig4kids.org. 

New volleyballs for our Club kids donated by Dig 4 Kids

Bids For Kids 2013 Honors the Port of Los Angeles

On October 4, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor celebrated our 18^th annual Bids For Kids Auction and Dinner as we honored the Port of Los Angeles at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach. Bids For Kids is our largest fundraising event and this year raised over $250,000 during the evening.

Each year, our Board members and Club staff organize a silent and live auction dinner to celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of the Club’s youth programming at 17 sites in San Pedro and Wilmington and raise funds to expand programming impact. Guests were treated to a silent auction reception overlooking the marina with live music provided by the Club’s Arts Academy jazz band. They were then seated for a sumptuous dinner and stirring live auction assisted by teen volunteers from our Keystone student leadership group.

Thanks to everyone who attended! We appreciate your continued support and look forward to seeing you at next year's event.

Club Youth Visit Cirque du Soleil "Totem"

On Thursday, October 10, youth from our San Pedro, Wilmington and Port of Los Angeles Clubs were invited to a preview performance of Cirque du Soleil's “Totem." We received a generous donation from Cirque du Soleil of 50 passes for our middle school and high school members to see this thrilling production as it makes its nation-wide tour. 

Our youth were excited that "Totem" was set to open at the Port of Los Angeles and were wonderfully surprised to have the opportunity to see the show before the public opening. "Totem" uses acrobatics, aerial dance and cultural performance techniques to portray the journey of the human species. This unique show has definitely opened our Club members' eyes to a whole new area of performance art. 

"Totem" will show at the Port of Los Angeles until November 10. Ticket and performance information can be found at www.cirquedusoleil.com/totem.

Our Club members in front of the "big top" to see Totem.

Our Transportation Services are Growing

Over 400 Club members at our San Pedro, Wilmington, Port of Los Angeles Clubs participate in our transportation program to get from their schools to our Clubs safely. Now we are able to serve even more youth members thanks to a very generous donation from the Harbor Community Benefit Foundation of two buses to serve our Wilmington community.

The two Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Blue Bird 78-passenger school buses replaced one of our diesel fueled models to make our transportation program more environmentally friendly. The buses will serve the over 150 youth members in Wilmington who are able to ride on our buses at no additional cost to their membership fee. 

Thanks Harbor Community Benefit Foundation for our new CNG buses!

Taco Bell's Latest Menu Hit, The Taquito Rico, by Wilmington Boys & Girls Club

Join us tomorrow at the Taco Bell in Wilmington on PCH and Avalon Blvd. and purchase a Taquito Rico to support the Wilmington Boys & Girls Club. The Taquito Rico is an award winning recipe by high school students involved in our College Bound program and all proceeds from tomorrow's sales between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. benefit programming at our Wilmington Club Teen Center. 

In August, College Bound teens from our Wilmington Club and San Pedro Club were invited by Taco Bell Foundation for Teens to Camp Taco Bell. At the company's headquarters in Irvine, the teens learned from Taco Bell leadership how to develop and market a new menu item. The Wilmington Boys & Girls Club won for the second year in a row for their Taquito Rico and the five winning team members were awarded a total of $2,500 in scholarships. 

Now they, and the other two Southern California Clubs that won, will sell their winning menu item at their local Taco Bell locations to compete for additional scholarships. We hope you will come out tomorrow to the Taco Bell in Wilmington for a delicious meal and to support our teens!

Taco Bell

100 W Pacific Coast Hwy, Wilmington, CA 90744

The Taquito Rico (regular and supreme) is our Wilminton Club teens' award winning recipe.

The Wilmington Club team winning one of the first place prizes at Camp Taco Bell.

Our San Pedro Club team working hard on their menu item at Camp Taco Bell.

Business workshop in the Taco Bell test kitchen - where the magic happens!

The STREAM Premieres Today Benefiting Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Take your family to the movies this weekend and support Boys & Girls Clubs of America with the latest family adventure flick, "The Stream." This must see coming-of-age movie premieres today at select Regal Cinemas across the nation, including Edwards Long Beach Stadium 26 and Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21. The film stars Rainn Wilson, Mario Lopez, Kelly Rutherford and Christopher Gorham and includes the production talent of nine San Pedro Club teens. Please purchase your tickets Here. The majority of producer proceeds benefit Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Earlier this summer, nine high school students from our San Pedro Club were given the opportunity to work with Rainn Wilson and the production team from Dreaming Tree Films and Foundation to create this feature. The nine teens who participated were selected to share the production talents they developed in our educational film production studio supported by the Taco Bell Foundation for Teens and the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation. Working along side film professionals, the teens fit right in, taking crucial roles in production and shooting scenes just like the pros. They even walked the "blue carpet" on Wednesday night with Rainn Wilson and Mario Lopez at the L.A. Live premiere. 

We hope you enjoy the film and support Boys & Girls Club of America programming this weekend!

Our San Pedro Club Teens with Mario Lopez at "The Stream" L.A. Live premiere.

Walking the blue carpet premiere with "The Stream" stars, Rainn Wilson and Mario Lopez.

Our San Pedro Club teens earlier this summer shooting a scene with "The Stream" director, Estlin Feigley.

Working on post-production editing.

Our Supportive Club Parents

In September, we had our first parent meetings of the school year. It gave our youth members' parents a chance to see the Club and the latest programs we have available for their children. We make it our mission to help raise our community's next leaders and need the support of our community and parents to provide our youth with the best opportunities possible.

The Wilmington Club Elementary and Middle School Centers had their combined parent meeting on September 14 with 130 parents in attendance to learn how they could work with our Club staff to better their children's education. A program fair highlighted the different ways we are accomplishing our Triple "A" Strategy for comprehensive programming in Academics, Arts and Athletics. A generous donation from U.S. Borax enabled us to give away backpacks and school supplies to the families that attended.