Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary celebrates remarkable milestone, unveils Renfrew Hub

Ribbon cutting ceremony at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary's Renfrew Hub

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary has transformed lives by providing safe places where kids can develop confidence, gain skills, and experience success so they can reach their best potential in life. Now the organization is celebrating as it enters its ninth decade in Calgary.

To commemorate its 80th birthday, the club is unveiling its newly renovated Renfrew space in northeast Calgary in the historic Rutledge Hangar. The building is the organization’s largest and oldest structure.

The facility has been transformed into the Renfrew Hub, an inclusive centre bustling with remarkable programs and services for kids from preschool to adulthood so that every young person can grow up well and thrive.

It’s managed to create flexible, thoughtful spaces where every young person can feel safe and respected.

Jeff Dyer, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary CEO, says the building took just under four months to renovate at a cost of $1.5 million.  Dyer says the clubs have always changed with the times and he’s excited to see the renovated building full of children.

"With kids we can be right at the forefront of reimagining the way the community is and the culture is, so it’s baked into who we are to be welcoming and inclusive," said Dyer. "Making sure everybody belongs because we see the impact when someone is excluded based on gender or sexual identity or orientation, that does not matter at all within our community."

Kelly Good Eagle was part of Thursday morning’s ribbon cutting and blessing.  He was consulted on the facility’s circle room which draws on teachings and traditions shared with the organization by their Indigenous elders’ council that he’s a member of.

"Everybody has a value and love and something to share especially with other kids and some of them when you start teaching them stuff they absorb stuff and it will go with them for the rest of their lives," said Good Eagle. "To know that they’ve learned this and can carry it on and somehow in the future they can pass it onto their kids."

Boys & Girls Clubs of Calgary, which has adopted a slogan of "We give children and youth the chance to dream big", is a charitable, community supported organization that serves over 4,500 vulnerable children and youth in Calgary each year.

For more information about the organization's programs, visit Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary.