Torch Club

Torch Club

The Black Canyon Boys & Girls Club (BCBGC) became the big 2-0 in 2019. To celebrate this momentous occasion, the Club has partnered with the Montrose Daily Press on a special project; to bring to the readers of the Press an article each week to highlight various aspects of the Club and show the impact it has had in Montrose & Olathe. The readers will get insight from current parents, former Club kids, current Club kids, past Club staff, and more. So join us each week as we show why “Great Futures Start Here!”

In last week’s interview article, my wonderful interviewee, Jyn, mentioned several things she enjoyed about her time at the Black Canyon Boys & Girls Club (BCBGC) one of which being her participation in Torch Club. This week I thought I would expand more on this program; despite its somewhat ominous sounding name, it is an important part of the BCBGC.

For the past few years, Torch Club has taken a back seat to other programming. With my lead as Executive Director, and with a highly motivated engaged staff, we have worked this year to bring this program back to the forefront. Torch Club is a unique program for our teen members that focuses on teaching them basic business skills. They think of their own ideas to make money to fundraise for activities they would like to participate in. At this year’s Crab Crack (side note: Crab Crack this year was a very successful fundraising event and a follow up article will be coming out on that soon), as part of our live benefit auction we asked the community to help donate for some startup equipment for the program in Olathe. When we asked the Torch Club kids of Olathe what they would like to see at the Club, they noted they would like a specific area just for themselves to sit, talk, and drink coffee. With that, they realized if they charged for the coffee, they could make some money to go on a field trip with a venture to Bananas Fun Park in Grand Junction being the immediate goal. After a generous donation of a Keurig machine and pods from the auction at Crab Crack, the Torch Club is one step closer to meeting that goal. They also went online to see what the cost of tickets would be for Bananas, as well as the cost of fuel to get there/back and additional expenses like lunch, and determined what they would have to charge per cup to get enough revenue to make that happen. They are also aware that despite the initial donation of equipment, they will have to use some funds in the future for Keurig maintenance and costs for pods, cream, sugar, etc. that will cut into their profit margins. They also realize the coffee might not necessarily sell itself and they will have to work on developing a sales pitch to sell their product. Supply and demand is another element of business they will learn about including gaining knowledge on when they need to reorder product, what product sells the most, what new products they can add, etc. to make the most of their time and money. While in my adulthood this all seems common sense for a business, as a teen I know I had no clue about this and would have really benefitted from that basic knowledge as I went to college and into the “real world”. While there are excellent business classes and programs at the high school that cover this as well, this small scale real world application is extremely valuable for the development of our teen Club kids (and with a such a fun reward at the end, double bonus!).

This is just the beginning of getting Torch Club back on track. After the coffee business is underway, the goal is to teach them additional skills that they can take with them into the future. Furthermore, this initial foray into business might spark a possible career path for our Club kids who might have been undecided as to what their future might hold in addition to teaching them the value of a dollar. I am excited to get this program back up and running and to see how it progresses in the future.

On a final parting note, the BCBGC is doing a donor drive starting from November 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019. Anyone who becomes a monthly donor, for any monthly amount, during that time will be entered into a drawing to win two VIP tickets to the Montrose Wine & Food Festival (valued at $200). The winner will be chosen and announced on March 1, 2020 (existing monthly donors will be automatically entered to win). As an added bonus, any amount you donate to the BCBGC will be eligible to get 50% back of that donation on your Colorado state income tax as part of the child care tax credit. You can sign up to become a monthly donor today at https://bcbgc2.ddock.gives/. For more information on the Montrose Wine & Food Festival, please visit www.montrosewinefestival.com. For more information on the Colorado Child Care Tax Credit, visit https://tax.colorado.gov/sites/tax/files/Income%2035.pdf.

Bud Taylor is the Executive Director for the Black Canyon Boys & Girls Club (BCBGC) and had been for the past three years. Prior to that, he was a BCBGC kid, junior staff member, and board director. Feel free to contact Bud Taylor by e-mail at btaylor@bcbgc.org or visit the Club’s website for more information, www.bcbgc.org.