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Keith Blanchard
DURING HIS SERVICE in California , helped raise over 10 million dollars and was heavily involved in the creation of a Boys & Girls Club/P.A.L. center called the Harden Youth Development Center . We are lucky to now have him in Gainesville , as Keith's goal is to build a similar center here in Gainesville , but he needs your help.
Keith is a graduate of South West Texas State University and is an accomplished artist. His work has been sold in galleries around the world and at Sotheby's Auction House.
Keith and his wife, Vera, lived in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil from 1984 to 1994 where he open and operated an art gallery in Copa Cabana.
In 1994, Keith and Vera moved back to the states with their daughter, Monique. Shortly afterwards, Keith was hired as the first general manager of the Salinas Peppers, an AAA independent minor league baseball team in Salinas California . While with the Peppers, Keith designed the Team logo, created the league slogan “Independent baseball… where only umpires call strikes” (This was during the major league player's strike) and after hiring a field manager & coaches, Keith supervised the complete renovation of the Salinas baseball complex and opened a team office and a high profile team merchandise store in a mall.
Then in 1995, Keith fulfilled a long time dream and was hired by the Salinas Police Department where he served for seven years as a uniformed patrol officer. During five of his seven years, Keith ran the Salinas Police Activities League (P.A.L.) program for the Police Department. He also served on the California P.A.L. State Board of Directors. It was there that he became involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Together with the Director of the Seaside Boys & Girls Club, they raised over 10 million dollars and built one of the premiere clubs in the country, the Harden Youth Development Center , which houses the Boys & Girls Club of Monterey County and the Salinas P.A.L. program.
Then in 2001, shortly after September 11th, Keith decided to make another major career move. After considerable thought, he decided to leave law enforcement and continue his work with at-risk youth full time and accepted a job with the Boys & Girls Club of Alachua County here in Gainesville . Since our arrival in October of 2001, there have been many amazing changes here at the clubs. Club renovation & roofing projects, softball complex, award winning football program, national recognition for the top youth program in the country, “Endeavor baseball,” three computer /internet labs with Cox high speed broadband access, creation of an adult education & family literacy/GED program, Increased grant funding from the Department of Juvenile Justice and a special gang prevention grant (There were only 13 awarded nation wide). In addition the club was visited recently by U.S. Secretary of Education, Rod Paige.
In addition, the clubs were recently honored as U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige and Belle and Pierre from DisneyHand's “Reading Together with Belle” visited our club and read with students and distributed free Disney books, courtesy of First Book. This event celebrated the students' participation in the No Child Left Behind Summer Reading Achievers Program. G
If you are interested in helping Keith with his wonderful goal of building a new center in Gainesville , please call him (352) 372-5342.
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