Boys & Girls Clubs readies new digs

Club Maxwell Village focuses ?its future at shopping center|

Local teens spent last week painting walls inside the former Citibank in Sonoma’s Maxwell Village Shopping Center. And when the paint dries, they’ll have a new place to hang out – as well as a host of classes and programs designed just for them by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley.

The Club Maxwell Village is set for a soft opening for current teen members on or around Monday, July 6. The grand opening will be an open house for the community on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 12. The site, adjacent to Starbucks, will be open all summer from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

A short five-minute walk through Maxwell Park is the Club’s main facility, which will continue to serve younger members, while Club Maxwell Village will be a stand-alone facility dedicated to BGC’s 160 teen members. Staff expects numbers to grow as a result of the new space. (Annual teen membership to the club is $20.)

Theater arts, dance classes and graphic design will be offered for the first time, according to BGC Director of Development and Marketing Rachel Cusick. Teen Program Director Nick Haley and the clubs’ college and career counselors will permanently move to the shopping center site, where they will continue to offer “Future Focus” workshops. There will be dedicated Intel Computer Clubhouse programming in the new space – for pursuits such as design and photography – and a technology coordinator will travel between the two sites.

The bright 3,000-square-foot space is divided into a media lab, tutoring center, Keystone leadership conference room, one-on-one college and career counseling offices, and a multi-purpose room for dance, theater, movie nights and larger meetings.

The facility will open with just a fridge and a microwave but, Cusick said, “Our planned full kitchen space is an amazing opportunity for a partner to develop a culinary arts program within our teen work-based learning program.”

The Club Maxwell Village sports a bold, modern black and white color palette with red accents. The space was transformed by architect Michael Ross and general contractor Sam Turner, of Gracie Construction, both of whom donated their time.

Graphic designer Lisa Carlsson and interior designer Danielle Colding, the Season 7 winner of HGTV’s “Design Star,” also volunteered their services. Donors Pam and George Hamel, Susan Lowe and the Miner Foundation also provided support.

A great deal of formal and informal research, thought and planning went into the development of the new site, according to Cusick. Three local teachers – Liz Bauer from Adele Harrison, and Andy Mitchell and Karling Skoglund from Sonoma Valley High School – hosted focus groups to learn more about what would entice teens to use the new space.

So how will the opening of new site affect the offerings at the main Maxwell Clubhouse? Teens will still use the main clubhouse for the gym, rock climbing, the music recording studio and to volunteer with the younger students, according to Cusick. The portable building used by the teens will transition to serve the growing number of middle school members.

“We’re excited to be able to use it as a dedicated space for our middle school members to call home,” said Cusick. “With the growing afterschool and summer population at Maxwell Clubhouse, this added space will make a world of difference.”

Recent Sonoma Valley High School graduate Marlen Rojas will attend San Francisco State University in the fall, but she gave up her free time this week to help paint the new site.

“It is going to be great,” she said. “We had told Nick (Haley) that we wanted more for teens to do, tutors just for us and our own space. And the location is kind of perfect because it is right next to places that we eat and shop.”

Rojas participated in almost every college tour organized by the Club during her high school years, but sometimes found it hard to convince her friends to join the Club.

“This will make it much easier to convince them for sure,” Rojas said.

With the opening of Club Maxwell, new club director Robert Hughes sees it as a “new chapter” in the Valley’s five-decade history with BGC.

“The Club Maxwell Village offers new opportunities to collaborate with other nonprofits in Sonoma Valley, one of our key strategic objectives,” said Hughes. “Building brighter futures for all youth in Sonoma Valley is the goal.”

‘The location is kind of perfect because it is right next to places that we eat and shop.’

– Marlen Rojas

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