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Bridgeport, CT - Wakeman Boys & Girls Club is proud to announce that Chief Executive Officer, Sabrina Smeltz, was awarded the prestigious Blue Spirit Award from Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The Blue Spirit Award is the highest honor bestowed by the President & CEO of BGCA and recognizes a local Club leader whose impact on the community has made a major difference for youth and families. BGCA President & CEO Jim Clark surprised Smeltz with the award at the Northeast Regional Conference held in Boston on October 10-13.
Clark spoke to Smeltz’s career-long commitment to serving youth, her focus on safety throughout the organization, and her work that resulted in the recent opening of WBGC’s new Madison Avenue Community Clubhouse, which serves youth in the North End and Hollow neighborhoods of Bridgeport.
Upon receiving the award, Smeltz addressed the other Club professionals in attendance. She reflected, “It takes a village…this award is not just about one person. We all get to be a voice in a different way. Keep doing what you’re doing; don’t give up—we all face challenges and barriers to our projects, but they result in amazing things for our youth and the community.”
Each fall, Boys & Girls Clubs of America hosts Regional Conferences, where thousands of attendees gather to learn about best practices and techniques in the field of youth development. Local Club professionals spend several days sharing and learning from each other in the areas of program delivery, resource development, administration, and more. At this year’s conference, Smeltz attended with two other Wakeman Boys & Girls Club staff and John Torres, the Executive Director of Bridgeport Caribe Youth Leaders (BCYL), another youth development organization that shares the space at Wakeman BGC’s new Madison Avenue Community Clubhouse. BCYL and WBGC have partnered and will collaborate on programming and activities to serve more of Bridgeport’s youth.
For more information about Wakeman BGC, visit www.wakemanclub.org.
Photo: WBGC CEO Sabrina Smeltz and BGCA President & CEO, Jim Clark, at BGCA Northeast Regional Conference, Boston.