By JOYCE CHANG Special to the Daily Press
Allan Young claims to know “most every nut and bolt” at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica, which offer educational and recreational programs for youths. After serving as director for 26 years at the Santa Monica facility and working 42 years total for the organization, he says there isn’t anything he hasn’t done.
The 57-year-old Santa Monica native joined the Club as a 9-year-old and was hooked by the age of 16. He was determined to make a career of it. Now president and chief executive officer, Young has seen the Santa Monica branch grow over its 60 years in operation — expanding from a single facility in a church to 10 facilities on the Westside alone that serve approximately 4,500 children. Young says the budget has grown from $350,000 in 1979 to its current $3.6 million.
The organization has expanded its services and now offers programs in athletics, technology, education, fine arts and counseling for youths 7 to 18 years old.
Can you describe your duties on a typical day? Or does it vary day by day?
“That’s the good part. My job changes on a daily basis really. I’m dealing with different donors, fundraisers, groups and parents every day. For me, one of the highlights is that if I can go and raise the money for something, then I can go out and see where it went right away. We don’t have a lot of bureaucracy. For example, How long have you been involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs?
“They gave me a part-time job in 1963 when I was 15. I can remember going home to my parents and saying, ‘You know what? They’re giving me 50 cents an hour to work there. Can you believe it? They’re paying me to come?’ I loved being there. I worked here full-time through college. I can remember telling the director at the time that one day I was going to have his job. In 1974, I left here to direct another club in Orange County for five years. When I did return here as the director in 1979, it was a wonderful experience to come back and call up the old director, saying, ‘I’m sitting in your old chair.’ I’ve worked for this organization basically that whole time, aside from two years in the service when I was stationed in Guam and those five years when I was running a club in Fullerton.”
Can you describe what triggered your involvement in the Club?
“I was at Roosevelt Elementary, which was an all-white school in the 1950s. My dad, a contractor, had diverse people working with him and he said to me one day, ‘You know, you need to be around all kids. I’m going to take you to the Boys Club.’ I said, ‘Well, Dad, that’s a tough place. I might get beat up.’ He said, ‘You need to go down there.’ So he took me down, signed me up — it was 50 cents then to join — and then the first couple weeks I got beat up twice. I learned one thing — I was a mouthy kid and needed to learn when to keep my mouth shut. After that period of time, I loved it and came every day. I learned to get along with all kids and learned when to say something and when to shut up.”
Would you say fostering diversity is something you consciously think of as a mission here at the club?
“Absolutely. In all the years I’ve been here, I’ve never had anybody hurt in any of our facilities. Again, they’re here because they want to be, and we have a diverse population. That’s not to say two kids won’t want to duke it out in one form or another, but we’ve had that very, very few times.”
What role does your staff have in the organization’s success?
“You can be in a Quonset hut and have a good program if you have a good staff for the kids. You don’t always have to have the Taj Mahal because if you have that but your staff isn’t good, no need to be in there because the kids aren’t coming. I have nine people that are directors of other clubs that have worked for me and I do encourage that. I tell them it’s a wonderful career— something that you can do for 42 years and still love to do.”
How has the organization grown or changed throughout the years?
“We’re building a thousand more clubs throughout the country in the next three years. So, every day, we’re opening up a new club. That’s how much growth we’ve had. We have about 4.2 million children and we’ll have over 5 million, it looks like, by the end of next year. We’re on every military base throughout the world. We’re on about 800 housing projects around the country, and when the Club goes into those, they have about 28 percent less damage to their facilities and 25 percent less crime— that’s the national statistic. So it pays for itself in just a couple of years. Kids need something to do. That’s why Santa Monica’s great. We have plenty of activities for kids to do.”
Can you describe the most memorable kid that you’ve met through the organization? Memorable experience that sticks out and why?
“Probably, I’d say there would be two very memorable kids. Wolf Kirson came from a family of divorced parents, and he lived here at the club basically. He was incredibly bright and just dedicated — volunteered all of his time. He met with President Reagan as the runner up for the National Youth of the Year. The fraternity that he was in at UCLA does a clinic here every year in his memory. He tragically died in a hiking accident while visiting some friends in the Sequoias. Another example is a kid called KK who was involved in gangs. He grew up here as a kid and got away from the Club when he was about 14. When he got out of prison, we were able to help him turn his life around. And now that he’s made something of himself is very rewarding.”
Do you ever have to give up on any kids or have them leave the program?
“The only kids that I’ve put out of here in 26 years both ended up in prison, and I said I won’t do that again. The first place they came as soon as they got out of prison was here. They needed a place to go. This was their home. So, I always believed that you give kids a second, third, fourth, fifth chance. If we lose them, then their choice is unemployment or prison. Our staff has the total objective to never give up on any kid at any time. We help every kid. No exceptions. But we also want to keep the good kids good. It’s not an institution just to have low-income bad kids. In fact, we’re here to help all kids. I believe a barrel full of good apples is gonna help the rotten one be a good one. Time after time after time, I have kids coming back here saying the Boys & Girls Club saved their life. They wouldn’t have been here. They would’ve been definitely in prison.”
What is most rewarding about your work for the organization?
“I couldn’t really put it in a sentence or two. It’s rewarding to see the kids come here — watching them mature into successful, caring parents. It’s rewarding having staff — many whom have grown up here themselves — be successful, and then having a board that really cares about the kids and that I thoroughly enjoy working with. What better thing can you have? I have friends who are very successful financially, but they’re miserable. They don’t like what they’re doing. But, I will say, there’s probably no one who has benefited from this club as much as I have, having now been here for 50 years and then working. I’ve had a wonderful life being here.”
Tell me a little about your background. Were you a child of means or not?
“Not a silver spooner, I guess. I went to Roosevelt Elementary, Lincoln Middle and Samohi. Growing up in Santa Monica, I think we were always the poorest family in the schools. We never owned a house — we always rented. My mother was a homemaker, and my dad was a contractor. I had wonderful parents. We didn’t have the financial means, but we had love and compassion at home. So, we didn’t know that we didn’t have any money. You know, we did sometimes at school when other kids had a brand new car and we didn’t. But it really wasn’t that much of an issue. My grandmother came to Santa Monica in 1898. My mother and father were born and raised in Santa Monica. My mother still lives here in Santa Monica — she’s been renting here for 60 years. My dad was one of 15 kids here and so I have, like, 90 first cousins on my father’s side. My sister lives in an apartment in Santa Monica, and my brother lives down in Orange County.”
Tell me about your family. “I’ll be married 30 years this month to Sally Young, who is the director of the YWCA. I would say it’s a big advantage to have a wife or a spouse that’s in a similar field. We have two children. Our kids were able to go to both of our facilities after school. It’s a great way to raise your kids. Aaron, 26, graduated from Pepperdine and is now assistant director of technology at the Club. Our daughter Sarah, 22, just graduated from SMC, and she’s going to Long Beach State. Both of my kids volunteered at the Club as kids.”
What do you like about Santa Monica? “I love the diversity and the compassion in the community. I don’t always agree with all of the things, but I think the people are trying to make this a good community. The people I like best are issue-driven, not politically driven. That’s why I don’t get involved in politics; I get involved in kids’ issues. If I see something that’s a wrong for kids, I’ll definitely be involved in that in any form I can.”
What is your least favorite thing about Santa Monica? “Probably that it’s too political. But, again, you learn to work with the people that really care about the community, whatever political party they’re involved in.”
What is your favorite place in Santa Monica, aside from the Boys & Girls Club?
“I spent a lot of time at the beach as a kid. I love the pier and the Promenade. It’s vibrant. I like the different characters down there. Pretty funny. There’s so many things I like about the community. I’d never leave. You know, I have friends that are moving out to different places, but why would I want to move away from all my friends? They’re right here.”
What changes have you observed in Santa Monica over the years, and has it been for good or bad?
“I grew up on 12th Street between California and Washington. When I grew up there, it was almost all homes, and now it’s almost all apartments. It’s gone from somewhat of a bedroom community and beach town to housing major businesses. It was always a town people liked to come to, but more so now. I guess a concern I have with it is now that the housing costs are so much, how are people such as my own children ever going to able to afford to live here unless they rent? Back then, people were probably more conservative. Now it’s a little more of a liberal community. But people still function within the community, whatever politicalness there is. But there’s a lot of things that have changed. They used to have fireworks, but that’s no longer allowed. They used to have the Navy bring the ships into the end of the Santa Monica Pier. As a kid, I used to go to the Aero Theater and you could see two movies and, like, 10 cartoons for 35 cents. And we’d stay the whole day. That was a big deal. And then when I had a paper route… I can remember if I got one star, which is getting somebody to take the paper, they’d give you a free pass to POP, which was Pacific Ocean Park. There was a pier out there before it burned down. We loved it… it was as good as Disneyland. It was more of a teenager type place. But they had a big roller coaster… diving bells. They had all different kinds of rides… a House of Horror. It was a pretty cool place. There was a lot of things you could do. I think it cost $3.50 to go, which was still quite a bit of money then.”
What do you like to do for fun? “I love the water. I love the outdoors and camping. I’ve taken groups for 30 years to Lake Tahoe. I’ve also been going to the Trinity Alps in Northern California for 27 years. We rent a little cabin on the river — no phones, no televisions, nothing. Just people. And I enjoy being with the people. I love sports — I go to Dodger and Lakers games sometimes.”
Are you involved in any other community organizations?
“I’m involved in the Rotary Club, helping to put together the Upward Bound House, and with the board of SMC Associates. I’m chairman of the LA Alliance, which is in charge of all the Clubs in Los Angeles. I’m involved with St. Monica’s, the separate board they have for the school at St. Monica’s, and with an oversight committee in the school district. I’m involved in anything that helps the kids in this community.”
What is your overarching message to kids to help make them responsible citizens and tomorrow’s leaders?
“I always try to tell kids, ‘I want you to treat people how you would want to be treated.’ The formula I have for people I hire is I wanna know if you care. If you care, I can teach you to do any job here. If you don’t care, I can’t teach you to care. We try to get kids to care about each other because I think that makes a big difference if someone cares. That’s something they learn at home and hopefully here, too. But I see people that are extremely bright that don’t care at all. And then I’ve seen people that are not the sharpest tack in the box, but they have wonderful compassion. And I’ll take that person every time. I want the person that cares here. And I want kids that care.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 13, 2005. Read the original PDF.