Regional Advisory Council member Tom Price and his wife Ada chaperone a local child at a mid-December Kingman Club youth Christmas shopping event supported by Walmart and UniSource.
KINGMAN – The Boys & Girls Club of the Valley (BGCAZ) spent the latter part of 2024 gearing up for initial operation of its new Club in Kingman in early 2025.
Vice President of Regional Impact Liz Byrne said BGCAZ representatives presented to the Kingman City Council and the Kingman Area Chamber of Commerce, while building other partnerships with the Kingman Unified School District (KUSD) and Kingman Academy of Learning.
Byrne said they also participated in Kingman’s annual Walk Away from Drugs public awareness event and the KUSD reality store learning experience, and more recently treated 20 area children to a Christmas shopping spree.
“We matched 20 youth and teens up with some local community members and some corporate partners of ours and we let them go shopping for the holidays,” Byrne said. “They all got $200 and they bought some new clothes and some toys to kind of make their holidays a little bit brighter, which is a typical event we do for all of our Club sites.”
Karly Urquhart will serve as the first Senior Branch Director for the Kingman Club that will be located in the east end of the commercial complex at Airway Ave. and Burbank St., through a philanthropic 15-year, $1-lease by Kingman Regional Medical Center.
Urquhart, Program Director Will Anderson and Branch Administrative Coordinator AuraLee Gehl have visited other BGCAZ locations as part of their training for their roles at the Kingman Club.
“They’ve been spending a lot of time in multiple different Club sites out here in Phoenix, as well as Yuma,” Byrne said. “We have a very specific safety and program training that we have all of our staff members go through, so they’ve been job shadowing their peers.”
The Kingman Boys & Girls Club is actively recruiting to fill part-time positions. Information is available at: https://jobs.bgcaz.org/youth-development-specialist-kingman-branch/job/28729056.
An online registration que (https://online.traxsolutions.com/bgcaz/kingman#/dashboard.) has also been activated, a preliminary step for parents and guardians interested in potential enrollment for after-school and out-of-school programming for kids 5-18 years of age.
Construction and renovation of the first two suites that will operate within the 46,000 sq. ft. facility continue, before space is finished for initial Club use.
“Then we can start doing the fun stuff like painting and installing technology,” Byrne said. “Right now, the official, un-official month that we’re aiming for opening is Feb., 2025. We just don’t have a specific date because we just want to make sure that all our ducks are in a row.”
The Kingman Club is located at 2160 Airway Avenue. Information about membership fees and potential financial assistance is available on site or by phone (928-534-1460) from 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday.
The Kingman Club website can be accessed at: https://www.bgcaz.org/club/kingman-branch-kingman/
Dave Hawkins
