Lew Bertrand introduced his longtime friend, Mike Lansing, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of the Los Angeles Harbor. Mike has worked for them since 1995 and considers it his ideal job. (The B&G Club has won many awards under his leadership.) When Mike was 6-13 years old, with no place to go, he had gone to the San Pedro Boys and Girls Club. It was founded in 1937 by the San Pedro Civitan Club by local business people, to keep kids off the streets and provide educational and cultural enrichment after school, in order to enable those with the most need to reach their potential.
 
 
The Club merged in 2004 with the Wilmington Club. There are now 3 Club sites, in San Pedro, Wilmington and the Port of Los Angeles. There also 11 school sites and 1 Recreation Center. It serves 11,000 children annually and has 7500 regular members, with 2250 average served daily. The annual budget is $6.5 million.
 
Diana Meza, a 2015 graduate of Banning High School, was chosen as the Youth of the Year for her success. She has flourished in academics, art and community programs. She plans to attend college next year, majoring in Psychology. She spoke describing her experiences and inspiration.
 
The B & G Clubs provide free hot suppers to 600 daily at the Clubs and another 900 daily in local schools. Their Arts Academy provides instructions in music, fine arts, dance, film production, video game design, 3-D modeling and audio recording to students aged 6-18 from Monday-Saturday.
 
There is a Matching Grant opportunity for Rotary to help the Boys and Girls Clubs raise a total of $500,000 within the next 15 months. This is based on a grant by the Margie and Robert E Peterson Foundation; Bob Peterson was a longtime member of the Hermosa Rotary Club. See the website at www.bgclah.org for details.