Formation | 1906 |
---|---|
Type | Youth organization |
Legal status | Non-profit organization |
Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia |
Region served | United States |
President and CEO | Jim Clark |
Website | bgca.org |
Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a national organization of local chapters which provide voluntary after-school programs for young people. The organization, which holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code, has its headquarters in Atlanta, with regional offices in Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, New York City and Los Angeles. [1] BGCA is tax-exempt and partially funded by the federal government. [2]
The first Boys' Club was founded in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, by three women, Elizabeth Hamersley and sisters Mary and Alice Goodwin. [3] In 1906, 53 independent Boys' Clubs came together in Boston to form a national organization, the Federated Boys' Clubs. In 1931, the organization renamed itself Boys' Clubs of America, and in 1990, to Boys & Girls Clubs of America. As of 2010, there are over 4,000 autonomous local clubs, which are affiliates of the national organization. In total these clubs serve more than four million boys and girls. Clubs can be found in all 50 states as well as locations in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and US military bases. In total, Boys & Girls Clubs of America employ about 50,000 staff members. [4]
The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Boys & Girls Clubs of America number one among youth organizations for the 13th consecutive year, and number 12 among all nonprofit organizations. The Boys & Girls Clubs of America is the official charity of Major League Baseball. [5]
Denzel Washington, a former club member, has been the spokesperson for Boys & Girls Clubs of America for over 25 years, since 1993. [6] and in 2006, for the organization's 100 anniversary, helped put together together with Daniel Paisner, a book that underscores the lesson: “If you want to change the world, start by changing the life of a child”. "A hand to guide me" features examples from leaders as they tell their life-changing stories of mentorship, when as youngsters they were guided by a caring adult, which shaped the rest of their life, including over 70 of America's leading personalities in theatre, sports, business, and politics such as Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, Whoopi Goldberg, Muhammad Ali, Yogi Berra, Toni Morrison, Cal Ripken Jr. and Colin Powell. [7]
These people came together in 1940 to create the Boys Clubs of America: [8]
In 1990, Boys Clubs of America was succeeded by Boys & Girls Clubs of America, which was founded by the following people:
Some notable members of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America: [10]
Following the success of the film Black Panther , in 2018 Disney donated $1 million to Boys & Girls Clubs of America for the development of STEM programs in the United States. [12] The donation was to be allocated to help grow the group's national STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum. [12] According to Mimi LeClair, president and CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago, it is very important for young people to have a solid background in STEM to compete in the global economy. [13]
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his dramatic roles on stage and screen, he is widely regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, with The New York Times declaring him the greatest actor of the 21st century in 2020. Over his career has received several accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. Washington has been honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2016, AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022.
Greenwich is a town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 63,518. Greenwich is a principal community of the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk–Danbury metropolitan statistical area, which comprises all of Fairfield County, and is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region. The town is the southwesternmost municipality in both the State of Connecticut and the six-state region of New England. The town is named after Greenwich, a royal borough of London in the United Kingdom. It is the largest town on Connecticut's affluent Gold Coast. Greenwich is home to many hedge funds and financial services firms due to its residential setting and proximity to Manhattan.
Evander Holyfield is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the undisputed champion at cruiserweight in the late 1980s and at heavyweight in the early 1990s, and was the only boxer in history to win the undisputed championship in two weight classes in the "three belt era", a feat later surpassed by Terence Crawford, Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk, who became two-weight undisputed champions in the four-belt era. Nicknamed "the Real Deal", Holyfield is the only four-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBA, WBC, and IBF titles from 1990 to 1992, the WBA and IBF titles again from 1993 to 1994, the WBA title a third time from 1996 to 1999; the IBF title a third time from 1997 to 1999 and the WBA title for a fourth time from 2000 to 2001.
Prescott Sheldon Bush Sr. was an American banker and Republican Party politician. After working as a Wall Street executive investment banker, he represented Connecticut in the United States Senate from 1952 to 1963.A member of the Bush family, he was the father of President George H. W. Bush, and the paternal grandfather of President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
Riddick Lamont Bowe is an American former professional boxer and professional kickboxer who competed between 1989 and 2008 in boxing, and from 2013 to 2016 in kickboxing. He held the undisputed world heavyweight championship in 1992, and won the super heavyweight silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
The English-American Building, commonly referenced as the Flatiron Building, is a building completed in 1897 located at 84 Peachtree Street NW in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, on the wedge-shaped block between Peachtree Street NE, Poplar Street NW, and Broad Street NW. It was completed five years before New York's Flatiron Building, and shares a similar prominent flatiron shape as its counterpart. It was designed by Bradford Gilbert, a Chicago school contemporary of Daniel Burnham, the designer of the New York building. The building has 11 stories, and is the city's second and oldest standing skyscraper. The Flatiron building is protected by the city as a historic building in the Fairlie-Poplar district of downtown, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Greenwich High School is a four-year public high school in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. The school is part of the Greenwich Public Schools system and serves roughly 2,700 students.
Trumbull High School is a large public high school located in Trumbull, Connecticut. The current principal is Todd Manuel.
As in the 1980s, the 1990s in boxing's popularity focused on all divisions. When 1980s legends Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, as well as others retired, newer superstars filled the void: Pernell Whitaker, Julio César Chávez, in the early 1990s, Oscar De La Hoya, Félix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the mid to late 1990s.
Greenwich Academy is an independent, college-preparatory day school for girls in Greenwich, Connecticut. Founded in 1827, it is the oldest girls' school in Connecticut. The head of school is Margaret L. Hazlett.
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson, American philanthropist and advocate for public health and women's education, was the daughter of Jeremiah Milbank (1818–1884), a successful commission merchant, manufacturer and investor, and Elizabeth Lake (1827–1891). Anderson established in 1905 one of the first foundations funded by a woman, the Memorial Fund Association, with gifts of $9.3 million by the time of her death. Anderson in her lifetime supported a wide range of health and social reform efforts during the Progressive Era, from tuberculosis and diphtheria eradication to relief work for European children following World War I, for which she was made in 1919 a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government.
Jeremiah Milbank American businessman, was a successful dry goods commission merchant, speculator in Texas territorial bonds, manufacturer, and railroad investor. His most successful business efforts were the New York Condensed Milk Company which he co-founded with inventor Gail Borden and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway (1876) where he was a member of the executive committee of the Board of Directors. Milbank was a founder and president of the board of trustees of the Madison Avenue Baptist Church at 31st. Street, New York City, and trustee of the Baptist's Rochester Theological Seminary. The city of Milbank, South Dakota, which is the seat of Grant County, was founded in 1880 and named in his honor. Among other interests, Milbank was in 1870 an original subscriber of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and owned a box at the Metropolitan Opera.
Rosemary Hall was an independent girls school at Ridgeway and Zaccheus Mead Lane in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was later merged into Choate Rosemary Hall and moved to the Choate boys' school campus in Wallingford, Connecticut.
A Shakespeare festival is a theatre organization that stages the works of William Shakespeare continually.
Joseph Verner Reed Jr. was an American banker and diplomat. He served as United States Ambassador to Morocco from 1981 to 1985, and as Chief of Protocol of the United States from 1989 to 1991.
Champs is a 2014 documentary film focusing on boxers Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Bernard Hopkins. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2014. Starz released the film on March 13, 2015, in a theatrical release and through video on demand.
Joel Babbit is an American marketing executive and entrepreneur. He currently serves as CEO of Narrative Content Group, which he co-founded in 2009 with Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell.
Dwight Muhammad Qawi vs. Evander Holyfield, billed as "Pandemonium" was a professional boxing match contested on July 12, 1986 for the WBA Junior Heavyweight championship.
Jeremiah Milbank (1887–1972) was an American philanthropist noted for his close friendship with President Herbert Hoover. His grandfather, also named Jeremiah (1818-1884), lived in New York City and in Greenwich, CT and was a dry goods merchant who became a partner in Borden, Inc., making a fortune in the condensed milk industry. Milbank founded the Institute for the Crippled and Disabled in 1917 in collaboration with the Red Cross as a rehabilitation center for disabled World War I veterans. In 1928, Milbank organized the International Committee for the Study of Infantile Paralysis and later served on the original Board of Trustees of the March of Dimes. Milbank served as a treasurer of the Republican National Committee, and often hosted Herbert Hoover on his yacht Saunterer, including to celebrate Thomas Edison's 82nd birthday. He later joined Hoover in founding the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and served as treasurer of the national organization for 25 years. His son, Jeremiah Milbank Jr., later served as chairman of the organization.
Evander Holyfield vs. Vitor Belfort billed as "No Holds Barred", was an exhibition boxing match between former undisputed heavyweight world champion Evander Holyfield and former UFC light-heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort on September 11, 2021, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Miami, Florida. Belfort won the fight by TKO at 1:49 of the first round. The fight sold 150,000 PPV buys.
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