DAYTON-With The Club youth center nearing completion of its first school year, co-founder Ginny Butler said community members are still confused about how the center is funded.

Butlers said that tremendous community support has allowed The Club to thrive and successfully accomplish its mission "to enable all young people, especially those who need us the most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens."

Butler said funding of The Club is split into three separate funding models.

After School Program

The first model is the after-school program which serves ages K-12. Funding is on a school-year cycle and should be completed prior to the beginning of each year.

"With the generous support of the Columbia County community and others, we were able to accomplish this in our first year in operation. Our annual budget for this program is $135,000," Butler said.

The budget includes all facilities costs, the salary of our full-time director, salary for the program director and three part-time people that work three hours or less every school day. It also includes the facilities and director costs through the summer months.

"We charge our members only $20 per year. There have been many discussions about the small size of this fee. Benefits are that it enables every child to attend, even if they come only one day a week or one day a month or between sports or other activities," Butler said.

"It also helps households with larger families to afford The Club. Because we now have 130 members, we have enrolled over 1/3 of the K-8 school population in Dayton. This is very helpful for granting purposes. We serve many families with two working parents as well as many other family situations," Butler said.

Funding from the After-school Program comes from a variety of sources, the largest of which is the annual Stand-Up for The Club fundraiser. This year's fundraiser takes place on April 27 at the Fairgrounds pavilion and includes a full dinner and entertainment by Portland comedian Keith Barany. Steve Mumm will host and the evening includes a small paddle-raise auction.

"Tickets are $100 each and we still have some available. This provides a little over one-fourth of our funding for after school," Butler said.

Butler said grants are another funding source, though few agencies offer operations funds, which leaves local foundations as the primary source.

"Last year we received $8,000 from the Warren Community Action Fund, $15,000 from the Columbia County Fund and $10,000 from the Blue Mountain Community Foundation. We hope to have similar funding for next year," Butler said.

"Innovia of Spokane gave us $30,000 last year and we have applied for $20,000 for next year. The county gave us $5,000 from juvenile justice money. The Port of Columbia gave us $7,500 to promote our career-connected learning and to support the maker space at The Club. We received funds from Pacific Power, Columbia REA, the Lions Club, Dayton Eagles Auxiliary, Exchange Club of Walla Walla, Puget Sound Energy, Broughton Land Company, Skyline Juniors and many, many individuals in the community that have been incredibly generous," she said.

The list does not include sizeable gifts from Wildhorse Foundation, Sherwood Trust, the Dayton Eagles Auxiliary, Michael Haight and Cathy Lee-Haight, Innovia and Dan and Ginny Butler for the purchase and renovation of the facility.

Spring Break Day Camp

This year's spring break day camp was funded by tuition of $75 per student, with eight scholarships provided by community members paying for those who couldn't afford tuition,

"The programming was a model for the summer program. This was attended by 38 members and was a huge success," Butler said.

Summer Program

The Club has agreed to host a free six-week summer program at its facility with assurance that funding will be forthcoming from Blue Mountain Counseling. However, Butler said that funding is in jeopardy and may not be available.

"Our current funding model is to increase tuition for the six weeks to $250 per person for the 60 attending. HomeStreet Bank has generously donated $5,000 for those who cannot afford this fee. Our goal is to provide great programming, both indoors and outside, every weekday during the six weeks, beginning the week after school is out," Butler said.

With the Dayton Pool closed again in 2019, The Club will provide members with the opportunity to swim in Prescott.

"The Friends of the Pool had enough money donated for pool passes last year to fund pool passes this year. We have worked out an agreement with Columbia County Transportation to transport to the Prescott pool for free," Butler said.

Butler said the current summer budget is falling about $14,000 short, mostly for staffing. She said that six to seven full-time staffers are required to operate from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. She said they have reached out to the faith-based community and service clubs and have received funds from Grace Episcopal Church and Kiwanis.

"Generous individuals have provided additional funds for a total to date of $4,000. The Columbia County Health Department is providing some programming and staff and is also writing for some grant dollars. We hope to have full funding by the end of this school year," Butler said.

Courtesy photo

"What this project has shown is the incredible generosity of this community to help the youth of our county have a safe, fun and positive place to go after school," she added.