Pasco High senior earns Boys Club award

A senior at Pasco High School has been named "Youth of the Year" by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties.

Ryan White won a $500 college scholarship and the chance to compete at the state competition in March in Olympia. The local contest involved giving a speech and being interviewed by several judges.

The award is given to club members in recognition of their leadership, civic responsibility and character.

GIG HARBOR: Tea party raises more than $1,000 to benefit planned HOPE center

Gig Harbor resident Katie Tedesco recently raised $1,150 for the Boys & Girls Clubs’ new HOPE center planned for Gig Harbor.

On May 6, she organized a Dress-Up Tea Party fundraiser for the Milgard Family HOPE Center. Katie, who is 2007 Miss Washington National Teenager, started volunteering at the Al Davies Boys & Girls Club this year, and organized the event after learning a new facility was proposed for her hometown. The News Tribune

Jacobs for CPark schools

Three school board candidates have targeted the same seat – representing District 2 – in the Clover Park School District this year. One of them is incumbent Carole Jacobs, and we think she ought to stay on the job.

Jacobs, a former teacher, is a 12-year veteran of the school board, and it shows. She has an excellent grasp of the district’s problems, and her commitment to public education has extended beyond the board: She has been a leader, for example, in the Clover Park Foundation, which raises money for the district’s schools. Those schools have made real gains in recent years, and Jacobs has been a part of the success.

Her experience and expertise are especially critical now, as the board faces an all-important decision: finding a new superintendent to replace the departing Doris McEwen-Harris.

Gig Harbor looks at spending $750,000 on senior center

The City of Gig Harbor is close to a deal that would spend $750,000 in public money over five years to get a new senior center at the future Boys & Girls club.

The deal, which city leaders agreed to in principle four years ago, would secure a permanent top-floor space in the $9 million Jim and Carolyn Milgard Family HOPE Center off Skansie Avenue. A groundbreaking is set for late next month, and the center could open in summer or fall 2009.

Rick Guild, president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, said the nonprofit group requires monetary contributions from all cities or local governments in which it plans to build a center.

Boys & Girls Club says goodbye to old South End building

The cinderblock gem of the South End is bound for dust.

The South End Boys & Girls Club has ended its programs at 4910 S. Pine St. The property has been sold and will likely be developed as housing.

Staff members and volunteers are packing trophies and basketballs down to the former Gray Middle School, 3109 S. 60th St., where the club programs will start June 22 and run for the next year.