For the fifth year in a row, the Brigade Boys and Girls Club will party for the sake of community children.
The Palm Room on East Salisbury Street will play host Saturday, Nov. 22 to the club’s annual Beach Bash, an event raising funds and awareness for at-risk and disadvantaged youth in New Hanover and Pender counties. 2014’s Beach Bash will feature live bluegrass music from Masonboro Sound, raffles and a silent auction, with prizes including fishing charters, sailing trips, and gift certificates for yoga classes.
“This is actually our fifth year running this fundraiser,” said Angie Hill, Boys and Girls Club director of marketing. “The folks at the Palm Room put this whole event on for us, and the proceeds go toward our afterschool and summer programs here at the club.”
The Brigade Boys and Girls Club is a nonprofit youth development organization that serves kindergarten-12th grade children across New Hanover and Pender counties. The club gives them a safe place to go after school where they can be around positive adult influences.
“We serve a little over 1,300 kids a year,” Hill said. “We have sites in New Hanover and Pender counties, and our goal is to serve the kids who need us most — kids from low income housing, single-parent households, kids in nontraditional households, foster kids, kids being raised by extended family members.”
Hill said the club allows kids to learn and grow outside their situations.
“We focus on five core areas,” Hill said. “These are education and career development, character and leadership development, the arts, sports and fitness, and health and life skills.”
Hill said the Boys and Girls Club’s structure necessitates relying on volunteer support to run its many activities.
“We’re associated with the Boys and Girls Club at the national level, but we’re essentially self-governed,” Hill said. “That’s why it’s so important that there are people taking time out of their own lives for our organization — and ultimately for our youth in the community.”
Hill said of Palm Room co-owners Tracey Hopkins and Danny McLeod generously take care of organizing and hosting the event.
“They run this whole event every year out of the goodness of their hearts,” she said. “A little over five years ago, they came to me and said, ‘We’d like to help raise money for your program, how can we do that?’ So we put on the first Beach Bash.”
Beach Bash has raised $21,000 over the previous four iterations, with the 2013 event raising about $6,000. Hill said she has even higher hopes for the 2014 event.
“Our goal this year is at least $8,000,” Hill said. “We’ve always got to do better. We’ve got to improve each year. … Our ultimate goal is for each kid to graduate high school, that they become productive members of the community and lead a healthy lifestyle. I know that sounds like it’s everybody’s path, but it’s not.”
Beach Bash will take place 7:30 p.m.-midnight Nov. 22. Tickets are $20, which includes dinner from Smithfield’s and a Beach Bash koozie. For more information, contact Angie Hill at 910-392-0747 or
[email protected] or visit www.brigadebgc.org
