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Friday, February 10, 2012
Wells Fargo and Maloof Sports and Entertainment Donate Sixth Youth Center to the Sacramento Community
by Kimberly Keyes, published on August 19, 2009 at 12:26 AM
Storyline: Sacramento Kings
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They shuffled in to the room, found seats, and appeared slightly uninterested. Then the music began and the Sacramento Monarchs entered the room. The teens began to buzz and one young man stood up to applaud. The teens might have tried to appear uninterested, but they couldn’t suppress their excitement. The Sacramento Monarchs had arrived.
On Tuesday, August 18th the Sacramento Monarchs, along with volunteers from Wells Fargo/Maloof Sports and Entertainment and world renowned local artist, David Garibaldi presented the Do It Yourself (DIY) Teen Center to the River Oak Center for Children.
The River Oak Center for Children is an organization that provides programs and services to families facing difficult life challenges. Some of the services provided are counseling, education, and extracurricular activities that keep teens off the street.
I spoke with Erin Treadwell, Communication and Media Officer for the Sacramento County Probation Department, who explained to me the positive influence the DIY center could have on the teens. Treadwell said that many of the teens are a step or two away from being on a road to a potentially unproductive future. She said, “A path through the River Oak Center is a path out of the criminal justice system.”
Martha Pree, a Child Care Counselor involved with River Oak Center said that the DIY center is exposing the teens to a different way of thinking about the world and what life is. Pree said that the teens are benefiting from someone in the community taking an interest in them and showing them a different environment from the one they know.
The DIY center provides a positive atmosphere where the River Oak Center teens can participate in activities such as art, fashion, music, and sports. The center also has academic activities that focus on reading, literacy, and finance.
Wells Fargo and Maloof Sports and Entertainment provided the center with:
Computers
Educational Software
Digital art work stations
Screen printing station,
Art tools
Reading materials
The materials for the center were not the only things donated.
Volunteers from both organizations designed, painted, and decorated the center with an “Inspire and Create” theme. The walls were painted in Sacramento Monarch colors and featured inspirational quotes from influential people such as, President Obama, Micheal Jordan, and Kanye West.
David Garibaldi, a widely known performance artist who has toured with big names such as Snoop Dogg, painted a mural of the Sacramento Monarchs on one of the walls in the DIY center and offered signed copies of his art portraits. garibaldiarts.com/
The DIY Center is the sixth center donated by Wells Fargo and Maloof Sports and Entertainment. Both companies have a reputation for their generosity and commitment to the local community. Maloof Sports and Entertainment have contributed $13 million in donations and have worked in partnership with Wells Fargo to establish reading and literacy programs throughout the Sacramento area.
As I leave the center, I hear laughter from a table. I look over and the ladies from the Monarchs and the teens are playing Taboo, one of the newly donated games. There is laughing, smiling, and guesses being shouted out. I wasn’t sure who was winning, who was losing, or who was having more fun. I was sure though, that the teens would fall asleep that night with a little more hope.
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The center has a residential capacity of forty beds and they are nearly full. The residential teens will be utilizing the program frequently. I do not have an exact number on outside clients that will be utilizing the program.
The specific programs offered through the center are art, fashion, music, and sports. They also offer computer programs that focus on reading, literacy, and finance.
The probation office is directly involved with River Oak Center providing counseling, one on one support, and rehabilitation for teens that have been involved in the criminal court.
As a new journalist, I appreciate your questions.
Why didn’t they just donate to the Boys & Girls Clubs? The B&GC have a hundred years of experience working with youth.
It would seem intuitive that smaller centers like the River Oak Center need more financial help than large organizations like the Boys and Girls club. If the computers donated to River Oak had been donated to another organization like the Boys and Girls Club, the teens that utilize River Oak Center would still be without computers.
On a side note, there are at least two Wells Fargo employees on the Board of Directors for Sacramento's local Boys and Girls Club. Also, Wells Fargo has a history of making Forbes' List for 100 Most Charitable Companies.
I am not going to further debate the motivation of the donators because it is irrelevant to the teens and children that are benefiting from the center.
Kimberly you REALLY need to do your homework before you make such ill informed statements like these.
Giving money to a very wealthy corporation instead of one that is struggling, and serves the general public and more local youth should not be irrelevant to anyone who cares about youth.
River Oaks will utilize the donated equipment to support their program which is VERY LUCRATIVE for a few, and I can almost guarantee you that the general public will not utilize this "teen center".
River Oaks is NOT just a non-profit, they are a mental health services corporation.
I will just show you the facts. Last year’s numbers, source: Tax returns.
They brought in over $18,000,000 dollars last year.
They have $15,000,000 IN CASH on hand
The CEO makes over $200,000 per year total package.
They spent $500,000 on Travel in ONE YEAR
Their phone bill is $300,000 per year, this is IMPOSSIIBLE, Jesus get a VOIP service!
They own over $10,000,000 in property
They spent $150,000 going to conferences.
If I didnt know any better I would say they spend like AIG executives.
Do you think River Oaks can afford some computers?
Meanwhile the B&GC struggled to bring in $1,500,000 and LOSING $300,000
I know where the Wells Fargo/Maloof Sports money should have gone.
River Oak Center may or may not have funds available for computers. Regardless if they do, the teens did not have computers available to them before the DIY center opened. When I spoke to a counselor, who worked with the teens daily, she told me that their prior program had “nothing like this.” SO basically, if the donators had decided to donate to the Boys and Girls Club instead of the DIY center, the teens from River Oak would still be without computers and supplies.
As far as River Oak versus Boy and Girls Club, both organizations have a purpose and both organizations are making a difference in at least one child or teen. AND It is important to remember that people that lack integrity can be found in corporations AND non-profits and people with integrity can also be found in both.
As someone who is financially unable to donate money and youth centers, I personally do not feel comfortable criticizing those that are able and CHOOSE to do so. In fact the argument criticizing the wealthy is tiresome.
To sum it up, I am sure that you are more informed on the politics of Sacramento than I and I am okay with that. In fact the discussion seems like something you are very familiar with and have probably debated in the past. I am more concerned with the benefits the teens received because of the center. Even if the center is or is not available to outside clients, there are ATLEAST forty teens who will enjoy it and I think that is significant. They probably do too.
THEY HAVE $10,000,000 CASH ON HAND! What is stoping them from buying some computers for the teens in THEIR OWN PROGRAM? Go back and ask THAT question.
They are typical of residential facilities that warehouse foster children for huge sums of money. They do not spend the money on the kids, they spend it on cars, huge salaries, trips and conferences, and in their case, $300,000 on their phone bills. I could set them up with VOIP and cut their phone bill by $299,000 per year. That would leave them with almost 300K per year to spend on computers!