The Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clarita Valley’s 54th benefit auction at the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center Saturday literally started with a bang.
This year’s theme, “La Dolce Vita,” dressed the Bella Vida ballroom in the aesthetics of the Italian countryside, and guests arrived in linen and lemon-print dresses — but not before passing by Italian jazz band Trio Brio, playing an intense drumbeat outside.
And before getting through the doors, guests were welcomed by none other than members of the Boys and Girls Club’s own teen leadership program, who plan fundraisers and community service projects.
“Everybody who attends loves to see the kids when they arrive, and see who they’re going to support,” said Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clarita Valley CEO Matt Nelson. “They’re amazing, incredible kids who are doing great things for themselves, and they’re great leaders and role models for younger members.”
Nelson said this was the first year the auction was held at the senior center, and the format largely followed the typical formula for fundraisers in Santa Clarita: a cocktail hour, a dinner and a live auction, coupled with a silent auction throughout the end of the week and weekend.
The formula paid off. Nelson said Saturday’s event exceeded its goal by about $10,000, hitting $276,000 through a combination of sponsorships, tickets, auction proceeds and direct donations.
“All of Santa Clarita’s incredible leaders and philanthropists are here to support what we think is the most important mission in our valley, and that’s to provide our kids with a safe, positive place after school or in the summer when school is out, supervised by caring adult staff, providing all kinds of programs and services,” Nelson said.
Di Thompson, Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce’s board chair, and her husband Jeffrey, a movie producer and executive at Oracle, co-chaired Saturday’s event. Jeffrey said the theme was a way of understanding what could be accomplished with a system that supports the wellbeing of Santa Clarita’s youth.
“The best part was recruiting my wife to be my best part of helping create this experience, and sort of the vision for this,” Jeffrey said. “‘The sweet life’ translated … aligns so well with our mission of supporting and aligning with kids and supporting kids in their growth.”
Nelson said funds raised during Saturday’s event would largely go toward the James T. Ventress clubhouse in Newhall and Thomas E. Dierckman clubhouse in Canyon Country, the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clarita Valley’s longest-running programs, but would also go to support programs in Castaic and Val Verde.
To run Monday through Friday after-school programs, and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. over the summer, costs about $2,000 a year per child, but members are only charged $60 a year.
That’s made possible by fundraisers like the benefit auction, Nelson said.
And for members like 14-year-old Kaila Aageli, one of the teen leaders stationed outside the Senior Center Saturday, the Newhall club — where she’s been going for the past six years — isn’t just a club.
“It’s like a home away from home, you know. They take care of their … youngers, their olders, their middles,” Aageli said. “They take care of them. They care about us.”
