SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – At an early morning breakfast, the United Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara County honored kids who are the most frequent to come through the doors.
They received what’s called the Blue Card.
Executive Director and CEO Michael Baker read off the names and called the boys and girls forward along with a community leader assigned to them for the event. They were then given the card.
Baker says, “we know from national studies that if we can get a child to attend a Boys & Girls Club 105 days in the same calendar year, they are twice as likely to graduate high school on time and twice as likely to lead a healthy lifestyle. So we created a gold card. So we went one step further and created the Blue Card.”
Baker says those are for kids that attend 200 days.
“Once they achieve that they are given the power to give a free membership to someone who is not currently a member and they get a free membership for the next year.”
He said many of the kids are coming back on a regular basis.