THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 30, 1996 TAG: 9608300520
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 72 lines
Barring a last-minute rescue by a guardian angel with money to spare, the Campostella Boys and Girls Club will open its doors for the last time this morning.
The club is the only alternative to the street for many of the nearly 100 public housing youths who regularly hang out there to shoot hoops, play pool and learn skills geared toward helping them improve their lot in life.
``As it stands right now, we're closing the doors at 5 p.m. (today),'' Web Gould, executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Hampton Roads, said Thursday. ``We don't have any other alternative.''
The Campostella club has operated on a shoestring budget since losing its primary source of funding last December. It is one of five boys and girls clubs operated in Norfolk and Virginia Beach by the nonprofit agency.
``We talk about doing things for kids today and those kids over there don't have much,'' said Kevin Yearwood, director of operations for the agency. ``The community resources need to pull together to do something because it's become a vital part of their community. When you just up and pull it out, it's going to have a large impact.''
On Thursday morning, about 50 children were at the club, in the former Tucker Elementary School on East Berkley Avenue, playing dominoes, cards and basketball. Others were outside on tumbling mats.
``It's pitiful,'' said Natoya Haliday, 14, who sat with five other children playing dominoes and discussing the fate of the club.
``For real,'' said a boy sitting beside her.
``It's fun here,'' said Derrick Walton, 11. ``It helps us learn how to play along with each other and make friends and stop all the violence. We won't have nowhere else to go.''
Gould said his agency has written a letter to city parks and recreation officials asking for an ``emergency bridge'' of $25,000 to keep the club open for the next six months while the agency searches for permanent funding. Gould estimated the club costs about $50,000 a year to operate; the club has a full-time director and five part-time employees, Gould said.
Gould said his agency has run up a debt of about $35,000 trying to keep the club running and has no more money to spend.
``It's ludicrous, I know there's money out there,'' Gould said. ``It would be a shame over what seems a small amount of money to close it down.''
Until last December, the club had been funded by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, a state-chartered group that manages the city's public housing communities.
The NRHA, funded largely by federal grants, lost about $1.2 million in operating funds because of Congressional budget cuts last year. The cuts included money in a federal Housing and Urban Development Drug Elimination grant used to fund the Campostella Club.
``We had a shortage of funds and we had to decide which were our most important programs that supported our goals,'' said Ray Strutton Jr., assistant executive director for the NRHA's housing operations.
The NRHA funds a similar Boys and Girls Club that serves the Roberts Village public housing neighborhood. The NRHA picked up funding for the Campostella Club several years ago when the Boys and Girls Club ran out of grant money initially used to open the club in the early 1990s.
Gould said he is optimistic that the city might step in to help, at least temporarily.
``The bottom line is that the city provides recreation and human services in other areas, and I just feel as though, everything being equal, it's a city responsiblity,'' Gould said.
Officials with the city's Parks and Recreation Department could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The director of the Campostella club said Thursday there was nothing more he could do - except pray. He said about 300 children, ages 6 to 17, are members.
``We teach them discipline, morality and things that are going to help them as people,'' said the director, Byron Joyce. ``I'm a former drug addict and alcoholic, and I know what the streets can do to them.'' by CNB