The Truth Staff
As always, the generosity of the members of the Blue Gill Fishing Club has impacted yet another organization that works to better residents of the inner city.
On Saturday, January 6, the Blue Gill Fishing Club donated $500 to the Toledo Boys and Girls Clubs and accepting on part of the Club was Billy Mann, director of Development for the Toledo area clubs.
“The Blue Gill Fishing Club is about the inner city helping out the inner city and taking care of youth,” said John Chapman, president of the club. “We don’t want the youth entangled with drugs and gangs. We want to try and put them on the right path so they don’t wind up in prison – we want to have them have an outlook in life that they can move forward. We don’t want them penalized for the rest of their lives for a dumb thing they did early.”
The Boys and Girls Clubs provide services to kids from first grade to high school seniors including: after school programs, job training, athletic leagues, leadership skills, summer fishing opportunities, among others.
The local clubs typically worked with around 6,000 kids before the pandemic but had to close doors for a while. However, over the course of the last several years, three new club facilities have opened and the number of kids serviced has climbed into the 4,000 range, noted Mann who is responsible for the clubs’ fundraising activities.
“This [money] will be used,” he said appreciatively to the members.
The Blue Gill Fishing Club was organized in 1992 by five community men, initially as a social club. Over the years, the Blue Gill has also evolved into a service club that raises funds for scholarships, to feed neighborhood youth and to assist community action organizations in their missions.