Lunchtime at the Capital Grille restaurant at Baltimore?s Inner Harbor usually features a mix of business people and tourists. But on Tuesday, a 14-year-old girl captured everyone?s attention.
Symone Stewart talked about how the Boys & Girls Club of Aberdeen changed her life, indicating to the diners they could do something to help Baltimore?s youths.
Hosted by Neil Katz, chief executive officer of Corridor Reznick LLC, the luncheon was held to introduce an organization aimed at starting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore.
The goals of the luncheon itself were to get businesspeople to donate money and sign up for board positions so the Boys & Girls Club can open a new center in the city.
“People seemed pretty enthused,” said Don Mathis, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Harford County. “Between Symone and the Boys & Girls Club [officials], we were able to make a convincing case.”
Wanda Newton, executive director of the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Clubs of Baltimore, in the Franklin Square area, said she appreciates the benefits of opening another facility for youths in other parts of the city.
“We?ve been able to reach at-risk and low-income youth and provide them an affordable and safe place after school,” Newton said. “Once we have them in the Boys & Girls Club, they are safe and we teach them life lessons that they can carry throughout their lives.”
Mathis said the last step before openinga center is for the city Department of Recreation and Parks to sign a memorandum of agreement.
“We are very excited about the potential of a Boys & Girls Club, and it?s currently being reviewed by the law department,” said Kia McLeod, Recreation and Parks spokeswoman.
“Then we would sign it,” she said.
And McLeod said she fully expects that to happen.
