Boys & Girls club will benefit all of us

By Jonathan Kipp

, Oct 1, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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Our own Boys & Girls Club will help curb teenage drinking and difficulty with the law.

The survey revealed that 67 percent attributed their ability to avoid difficulty with the law to their involvement in the club and 67 percent said the club is where they learned how to say no to drugs and alcohol.

Our own Boys & Girls Club will get our kids moving and healthier.

Eighty percent of alumni said their club experience made a positive impact on their attitude toward physical fitness and 74 percent indicated they participated in sports. This is good news in a time when nearly 32 percent of kids are considered obese or overweight.

The project will take money. And that can be tough during times like these.

But not building the Forest Grove Boys & Girls Club at a time when we know that these facilities make a big difference in communities, well, isn't really an option. And here is why:

This year more than 4,000 Washington County residents will be under some sort of post-prison supervision. These folks live among us. They are 79 percent white, 79 percent male, half are under 30-years-old and 64 percent committed a felony. You and I will pay over $33 million over two years to deal with them. When do you think these characters got on the wrong path? Where do you think the 4,000 statistic will be in 10 years as our population explodes?

And how many million are you willing to pay?

The Forest Grove Boys & Girls Club can be – will be –a building, a program, a way of life, a walking-the-talk, and a life-sized-tangible-commitment to our kids and a step in the right direction to keeping Forest Grove safe for everyone who comes here to live, learn, work and play.

Jonathan Kipp lives in Forest Grove, has two children and is a member of the Washington County Public Safety Coordinating Council. He also is an applicant for the Forest Grove City Council vacancy.

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