Director: Club is a positive place

Dan Monahan

In response to Michael Berry’s comment mentioning the Boys & Girls

Club in his letter in last Thursday’s “Readers Respond,” when was the

last time Berry entered the club?

The fact that Berry mentioned gangs and the club in the same

sentence clearly tells us just how naive and unaware he is of what

the club is about and who is involved in our program.

We welcome Berry and any other residents to visit us so we can

educate them and help clear up any confusion on the difference

between reality and perception, not just an opinion from a resident

who has never even been inside our club.

Berry’s other perception about parents forbidding their child from

attending is also not accurate. I just wish the adults in Costa Mesa

would follow the lead of our young people in town and keep an open

mind as to what the reality is. Members of our Boys & Girls Club are

not gang members or do they ever want to be.

We teach the importance of staying away from gangs, drugs, alcohol

and, yes, bigotry -- all of which, I might add, should be offered

more in this town.

We have worked very hard and long hours here at the club to keep

our members safe and to help them learn skills that will help them in

their future.

The Boys & Girls Club organization has more than 100 years

experience in youth development and has been “the positive place for

kids” in Costa Mesa for the last 60 years, and it will continue to do

so, regardless of what some people say.

What we ask is for people to make up their own minds instead of

believing the scare tactics of certain individuals in town. They are

making the children of the Westside out to be all gang members and

riff-raffs.

You can find bad elements in any town if you look for them. I have

more than 18 years of experience in youth development, and I will not

trade the Westside Boys & Girls Club kids for any kids in the

country. They are polite and caring, and they love their community

just as much as anyone.

It is time for this community to stop wasting its time bickering

and slandering, when in reality, we do not even know each other.

It is time to stop referring to what side of town you are from and

become one town: Costa Mesa. We pride ourselves in teaching our

members not to judge a book by its cover; if only we adults could

just follow their lead.

* DAN MONAHAN is the branch director of the Westside Boys & Girls

Club.