TRAVERSE CITY -- A local Boys & Girls Club chapter is working to open a third site in 2009 under new leadership, following the retirement of its prior director.
Sara Weatherholt, a former child care coordinator for Traverse City Area Public Schools, became executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Grand Traverse in early September.
She replaces Pat Lewallen, who had worked in the position a year before retiring.
Weatherholt was a member of the nonprofit's board of directors before assuming her current role, and previously worked with children at Grand Traverse Pavilions and Head Start.
"It was a career move for me," she said of the Boys & Girls Club. "This is the whole piece. ... You're involved with the fundraising, you're involved in the staffing."
The club has programs at Traverse City West Middle School and in Peshawbestown in Leelanau County. Weatherholt said she expects the combined enrollment to be about 300 at the end of December.
Both sites reopened in 2007 after a lack of funding forced them to close for about a year. The club had back payments that totaled more than $75,000 for utilities, supplies and other operating expenses, board President Rod Brown said in March.
The debts since have been paid, but an interest-free loan from Fifth Third Bank remained, Brown said.
Local groups, including TCAPS and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, helped reopen the current programs by donating money or space.
Lewallen said in the spring that staff wanted to open a program this fall at what is now East Middle School, but funding ultimately wasn't secured. The goal now is 2009.
If the local club receives a few outstanding grants, it would have the necessary funding to open at East, Weatherholt said, but the organization wants to ensure funding will be available to sustain it before it is opened.
The chapter's budget was approved in October and includes the East project, she said. The addition brings the estimated costs to $375,000. It could be adjusted downward if the site doesn't open.
It takes about $250,000 a year to operate the two existing programs, said Lewallen, who helps write grants as a volunteer. Students pay an annual $10 membership fee.
"It's just tough to raise money right now," she said. "There's a lot of people competing for less grants."
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