100TH BIRTHDAY BOYS & GIRLS CLUB HELPED TAKE LEAD.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

NEWHALL - It started out in a historic house on Walnut Street, not too far from the sheriff's substation on San Fernando Road.

It wasn't quite the "He-Man Woman Haters' Club," but the sign on the door in 1968 read "Boys Club," and it wasn't open to girls for its first 10 years of existence.

"The national club didn't want us to change," said Jim Ventress, the current chief professional officer and head wrangler of the youth group for the last 20 years.

"We were the first club west of the Mississippi to change our name, which we did in 1978, and it stayed that way for a long time. National didn't change the name until 1992, but our board of directors wanted us to reflect the community, so we became the Santa Clarita Valley Boys & Girls Club."

In the 1970s, the local club had a few hundred members at best. Today, 3,529 kids participate in programs run from the Newhall, Canyon Country and Val Verde facilities.

This year, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America is celebrating 100 years of service, providing activities and opportunities for more than 4.4 million children in the 50 states and at U.S. military bases around the world.

As part of the celebration, the Santa Clarita Valley club will host an alumni dinner Friday at its Newhall Central Facility and hopes to attract many former club members.

"Contacting those members who have grown up and moved away is a difficult task," said Colleen Meloni, administrative services manager for the club. "We know they are out there; we're just having a hard time finding them."

One alumnus who will be there is Frank Giardina, the club's Boy of the Year in 1968.

"Back then, there were three groups in town: the surfers, the hippies and the hoods," he said. "I was running with a bad group and had hair down to the middle of my back. I was president of the only gang in town. We used to start fights at the Plaza (movie theater) in Newhall and stole bikes, which is minor compared to what gangs do now.

"I noticed that the girls in our crowd looked a lot like guys; they were all tomboys. My dream was that someday I'd ... a cheerleader, but I knew I was going to have to change my lifestyle and appearance."

He says that hanging out at the club wasn't the cool thing to do in town, but he could see the writing on the wall.

"I look back now, and all the people I hung out with before (club membership) are either dead or in prison or didn't amount to much," he said.

He got involved in club activities and helped whenever former director Bob Ross needed something. When Giardina was asked to hand out pamphlets at a banquet, he thought Ross was just being nice, inviting his parents to attend and giving him a seat at a table for his work.

"I thought it was a nice deal: I hand out brochures, and we get three free dinners," he said. He smiled as he sat in a club office amid a sea of scrapbooks assembled by Ventress. "Then they started talking about this kid, and I thought he - whoever he was - and I had a lot in common. Turns out they were talking about me."

Ventress has been hard at work culling thousands of photographs taken in the clubs or on field trips to feature as many alumni as he can. A lot of familiar Santa Clarita faces - albeit in their younger form - will be featured in the slide show he's creating. In addition, scrapbooks from activities and more than 34 years of fundraising auctions will be available for perusal and reminiscing.

All former club members, directors, staff and board members are encouraged to attend. For information or to RSVP, call Meloni at [phone].

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Jim Ventress, right, executive director of the area Boys & Girls Club, meets with Frank Giardina, who as a youth was the club's first Boy of the Year.

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News