Boys & Girls Club of Barstow: The Beginning

Boys & Girls Club of Barstow: The Beginning

-Rich Harpole   www.RichHarpole.net

Sixteen years ago this month, the effort to open a Boys & Girls Club in Barstow began.  I was a Barstow Police corporal and had been working on drug and gang issues in Barstow for several years, and during an earlier contact with a group of young gang members one of them asked me, "Why isn't there anything for us to do in this town"? 

That question stuck with me for several years. There always seemed to be something going on in Barstow-- youth football, baseball, soccer.  There were dance programs and several activities at Park and Rec, we had a bowling alley and a movie theater.  There were always things to do, what were these kids talking about--nothing to do.

Then one night, when I could not sleep, I was surfing the Internet and started looked for information about youth programs.  I came across a bulletin from the US Department of Justice, which focused on the Boys & Girls Clubs and their impact on crime and the lives of young people.  As I thought about the Boys & Girls Clubs and our young gang members things started to make sense.

In gang awareness training, we were told that most of these gang members were kids who had things missing in their lives--like stable homes, or parents who cared, or a strong father figure to help guide them.  They all had something lacking in their lives and were looking for something or somewhere to belong--something that could fill the void they had in their lives. 

As I continued to read the DOJ bulletin…The Boys & Girls Clubs give kids something to belong to, and people who care about what happens to them…gang members need something to belong to... 

There was a phone number on the back of the bulletin; I called and I found myself connected to the Executive Vice-President of Boys & Girls Club of America in Atlanta, Georgia.  After listening to me for a few minutes, he promised to have someone call me and a few days later a regional representative named Dennis Marcello called.  He began to overload me with information and said the first step would be to form a steering committee of concerned community leaders who would be interested in working on the idea.

Days later, I was on duty driving around town and drove past Fosters Freeze.  It had been suggested that I try to get Michael Lewis onboard.  So I stopped and explained to him what I was trying to do and told him I needed him to come to a meeting.  I then asked who he would suggest I see next.  My next stop was Julie Hackbarth at Del Taco.  On and on it went.

On March 13, 1996 seventeen people, some business owners, the Chief of Police, the Mayor, a Council Member and concerned residents came together to hear Dennis Marcello make his presentation.  Dennis also played a video clip of Denzel Washington.  It was a PSA Denzel recorded for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.  At that moment, I was hooked.  The PSA is called "The Card" and it is available on You Tube.  Check it out--and you may find that it will have the same impact on you that it did me.

With a lot of hard work, and the help of a great many people, we were able to open the Boys & Girls Club of Barstow on October 7, 1999.  In the 12 years we have been open, several hundred kids have walked through our doors--some disadvantaged and some not; some from single family homes and some not, but all looking for a safe place to hang out, a place of their own, a place to belong.

--Rich Harpole - February 1, 2012

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