Also honored at the event, representing Santa Paula was Violeta Garcia, of the Las Piedras site in Santa Paula and representing Fillmore was Charline Nunez, of the Fillmore First Street site. Violeta, an eighth-grader at Isbell Middle School is an active member at the club with a knack for drawing her peers into the various activities available at the Boys & Girls Club. Charline, a sophomore at Fillmore High School, is an energetic young lady who is very helpful with the younger children at the club.The members and staff of the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley would like to congratulate all three of our outstanding young ladies for their accomplishments. We are proud of them and their dedication to their peers and their community. We wish them success in the future and are pleased to continue to provide a Positive Place for Kids for all the youth of the Santa Clara Valley.
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Pictured above left is Santa Clara Valley Youth of the Year recipient Nancy Luna receiving plaque from Damon Harris, Boys & Girls Club of Simi Valley. Above (center) is Santa Paula Youth of the Year Violeta Garcia with Las Piedras Site Director Maricela Juarez. At right is Fillmore Youth of the Year Charline Nunez. |
Boys & Girls Club Youth of the Year Program
March 23, 2007
Santa Paula News
Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Youth of the Year program, sponsored by the Reader’s Digest Foundation, celebrates leadership, character and service. It recognizes youth for outstanding contributions to a member’s family, school, community and Boys & Girls Club.
The Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley celebrated their Youth of the Year along with several other Ventura County Boys & Girls Clubs on Friday, March 9th at the Courtyard by Marriott in Oxnard. Five candidates competed for the title of Youth of the Year for Ventura County, including our Youth of the Year representing the Santa Clara Valley, Nancy Luna of our North Fillmore Neil C. Schmidt branch. Each of the five finalists was awarded scholarship money by County Schools Federal Credit Union.Judges included Irene Totten, Psychologist, Mike Klee, Retired Probation Officer and volunteer for the Ventura County Probation Agency, Lieutenant Roy Jones, Simi Valley Police Department and Andy Carrasco of Southern California Gas Company. The four selected judges pored over sixty pages of biographies and essays and interviewed each of the five candidates with questions regarding their past experiences and future plans. Each of the youths has overcome challenges in their young lives whether it has been family issues, monetary problems or struggling both socially and academically in school. Each of them strongly attributed the Boys & Girls Club to being the constant in their life, the touchstone that helped them overcome these challenges.Our Santa Clara Valley candidate, Nancy Luna, now a senior at Fillmore High School has been attending the Fillmore First Street site since third grade. When Nancy was in seventh grade, much to her delight, she became a Junior Staff at the club. She now holds the title of Co-Site Director at the Neil C. Schmidt branch in North Fillmore. Nancy enjoys working with the younger children at the club and plans to attend CSUCI or CSUN, where she has been accepted. Nancy plans to return to the Boys & Girls Club movement after college to “move up the ladder and maybe someday be CEO of Boys & Girls Club”. Nancy greatly values her experience with the Boys & Girls Club and has stated “I appreciated all the attention I was given growing up at the club and how the staff took the time for me. Now I want to give back to the club because the members, staff and activities have made an important impact on my life”.
