So what did you do this weekend? It’s a common question, and for once I have a less common answer. Saturday I was at the Salt Lake Marriot with about five hundred other people who care deeply about the youth of Utah. It was the annual Boys and Girls Club of South Valley fund raiser. I was lucky to MC this year’s event.
The Boys and Girls Clubs of South Valley help children develop attitudes, skills, and values needed to be successful in life. They are safe havens for children of all school ages in the after school hours. At Saturday’s event children told heart warming stories about being steered away from gang activity, grade point averages that went from failing to straight A’s, and development of talent. Above all, these are places of hope. Children are given the hand up they need to succeed. They come from all backgrounds, and the reasons they spend time in the Boys and Girls Clubs vary as much as the children who dwell there. But there is no doubt each looks upon the other as family, a family that cares for them, until their own family arrives at the end of the day to care for them.
Support from the community was impressive Saturday. Tens of thousands were raised to fund this very important cause. It was raised with an auction of donated goods and services that ranged from Mayor Peter Corroon’s donation of a day of lawn care, to trips to New York and Broadway. It was also raised in contributions that came without any benefit other than the satisfaction of knowing they were helping shape the future of tomorrow’s leaders.
