2022 Wrap-Up Highlights

As 2022 comes to a close and we head into the New Year, our Boys & Girls Club leadership team would like to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to our wonderful community for another successful 365 days. Every single day, we get to provide new opportunities to positively impact young lives. Incredible moments and memories that will last a lifetime. We know our youth are counting on us. And we are also counting on them. After all, they’re the only next generation we’ve got. So again, thank you for helping us give kids what matters most – meaningful life experiences they need today to become anything they can dream tomorrow. We couldn’t do it without you!

Here are just a few examples of our community’s generosity throughout this holiday season:

We absolutely LOVE being able to help spread joy during the holiday season through our Adopt a Family program. This year we had 41 donors adopt a total of 46 families resulting in gifts for 151 children. Thank you to ALL individuals, families and businesses/organizations who donated to ensure our Club families have a very Merry Christmas!

Special thanks to these local businesses and organizations for their generosity: Aramark, The Arc Fond du Lac, ASTOP, Buechel Stone, The Charity Club, Drexel Building Supply, Fondy U13 Girls Soccer (Fond du Lac Soccer Association), FVSBank, Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 270, FreshFit Meals LLC, Holiday Automotive, Ideal Chiropractic & Therapeutic Massage, Mercury Marine, Mid-States Aluminum Corporation, and Fond du Lac Noon Optimists.

Grande Cheese is always thinking of our Boys & Girls Club members, and has been contributing to our organization’s mission and vision for youth from the very start. On a normal Monday morning the week before Christmas, we received a phone call asking if we could use 180 jugs of milk and a big box of cookies. Of course we said YES! And as you can see, the kids very much enjoyed this delicious afterschool treat. Thank you, Grande Cheese, for all you do for our Club and the Fond du Lac community!

FUN FACT: Grande Cheese is a proud Presenting Sponsor for our annual Reach for the Stars Dinner & Auction that takes place each February and this year we are celebrating the event’s 15th anniversary! They also support every other event we put on and we are so grateful for their commitment to our partnership.

Brad and Katie Pachefsky, owners of our local Jimmy John’s, enjoy being able to periodically treat our Club kids to some delicious subs, chips and cookies. The kids are always so excited when they realize they have special surprise meal to eat when they walk into the cafeteria at Club on an ordinary afternoon. We are so thankful for the continued support of thoughtful partners like Brad and Katie who go out of their way to make an ordinary day EXTRAORDINARY for the youth we serve. Thank you!

FUN FACT: Brad serves on our Board of Directors and Katie serves on our Reach for the Stars Dinner & Auction planning committee. Jimmy John’s has also been a Legacy Club sponsor of Reach for the Stars for the past 6 years!

Thank you to our good friends at McNeilus Steel, Inc. for selecting us to receive this incredibly generous $1,600 gift through their Employee Giving program!

FUN FACT: On top of monetary support, they are also instrumental in the planning and success of our Spell for Great Futures event each year, and we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the team spelling bee this next October. We are so grateful for their partnership and belief in our mission and vision for youth. Thank you McNeilus Steel!

Brittany Lynch, recruiting manager for The Commonwealth Companies, stopped by the Club to present a $2,000 sponsorship gift for our upcoming Reach for the Stars Dinner & Auction set to take place February 24. We sincerely appreciate this new partnership with Commonwealth and look forward to their involvement in the event this year!

FUN FACT: Brittany is a Club Alumni and was also our 2009-10 Youth of the Year! We couldn’t be more excited to have her back in Fond du Lac and aligned with a great company doing incredible work throughout our community.

For the second consecutive year, our local PetSmart has donated bags upon bags of the cutest, brand new stuffed animals to our Boys & Girls Club. This year alone, there were nearly 400 stuffed animals distributed to each of our afterschool program sites. The kids could not have been more excited to be able to pick out their very own special stuffed animal to take home. They even spent time coloring with and reading to their stuffed animals before taking them home. Thank you PetSmart!

With that, we wish you ALL a very Happy New Year!

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