United Boys & Girls Club honors kids who attend frequently and leaders say success is ahead

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - At an early morning breakfast, the United Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara County honored kids who are the most frequent to come through the doors.

They received what's called the Blue Card.

Executive Director and CEO Michael Baker read off the names and called the boys and girls forward along with a community leader assigned to them for the event. They were then given the card.

Baker says, "we know from national studies that if we can get a child to attend a Boys & Girls Club 105 days in the same calendar year, they are twice as likely to graduate high school on time and twice as likely to lead a healthy lifestyle. So we created a gold card. So we went one step further and created the Blue Card."

Baker says those are for kids that attend 200 days.

"Once they achieve that they are given the power to give a free membership to someone who is not currently a member and they get a free membership for the next year."

He said many of the kids are coming back on a regular basis.

Baker says education is the number one priority and the clubs offer learning areas.

He says the club experience and field trips are valuable on many levels for the children.

Outside of the clubs, they go to the beach and other outdoor experiences.

The breakfast burritos served at the event were donated by Super Cucas in Santa Barbara and Isla Vista and served from the on site kitchen that also offers nutritious meals daily. Meals are also served at all the clubs daily.

Baker also announced Alex Cruz as the Youth of the Year. He spoke to the group and will be at Santa Barbara City Hall on Tuesday to say a few words to the City Council as well. At the breakfast he said "music box, that got me into music and now I play the piano and sing. Amazing organization. I love it.  I don't know what I would do without it," he said.

One of the honorees was Brandon Gonzalez Sierra who goes to the Goleta Club. "I would come here in like the summer and I came here Saturdays and mostly every weekdays.   I just did my homework on weekdays and in the summer we got to have a lot of fun." He said there were many field trips he went on and looked forward to more.  

The honorees were done with the breakfast by about 8 a.m. so they could make it to their morning classes at school.

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