Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows: An idea becomes reality

1976 marked the beginning of operations for the Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows. The Club was formed and financed by local business men and women and many concerned citizens to fill a growing need in the community for a robust after-school program.

The first Boys & Girls Club members occupied a facility located just south of the intersection of Terminal Way and East Plumb Lane in Reno. Due to the vast popularity and success of the Boys Club movement, a major fundraising campaign was instituted to provide a better location for the then-Boys Club. In late 1981, the current facility opened at 2680 East 9th St. in Reno.

In 1985, the Club’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to change the name from the Boys Club to the Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows, due to an increase in female membership.

In 1999, the first satellite site of the Club was opened at Truckee Meadows Community College, and in 2001, two more sites were added-the Neil Road Youth Site and the Sun Valley Teen Center. In 2003 and 2004, the Rollan Melton Elementary School and Sun Valley Elementary School Sites were opened. In 2004 after a massive expansion, the Donald W. Reynolds Facility opened on East 9th Street, increasing the size of the building from 40,000 to 80,000 square feet.

In 2005, the site at Lois Allen Elementary School opened.  In 2007, the Club opened two new teen site locations-one on the campus of Hug High School and one at the Larry D. Johnson Community Center in Sparks.  In the fall of 2008, the Club expanded its services even further with the before- and after-school program at Libby Booth Elementary School and the opening of the Early Learning Program at the E. L. Wiegand Youth Center.

Summer 2010 saw the addition of the Boys & Girls Club of Fernley. The Club will be accessible to youth and teen members.