{"id":146425,"date":"2026-02-06T19:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146425\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T19:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:37:19","slug":"boys-girls-clubs-of-greater-tampa-bay-raises-over-1-million-at-annual-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146425\/","title":{"rendered":"Boys &#038; Girls Clubs of Greater Tampa Bay raises over $1 million at annual event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWhere you start doesn\u2019t define where you can go,\u201d actor Mario Lopez told a roomful of business and civic leaders at the Boys &amp; Girls Clubs of Greater Tampa Bay\u2019s annual Great Futures Breakfast. Recalling his childhood in San Diego, Lopez\u2019s local club was his second home \u2014 and a second family \u2014 nearly every day from ages 5 to 15. The 2025 Outstanding Local Club Alumnus honoree Carlos \u201cCarlito\u201d Fuente Jr. couldn\u2019t agree more, having \u201cgrown up at the Ybor City club,\u201d pledging, \u201cI won\u2019t forget where I came from.\u201d Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister called the Boys &amp; Girls Clubs \u201ca proven model &#8230; not just changing lives but saving them.\u201d Board Chair Emeritus Hal Steinbrenner noted the New York Yankees\u2019 25 years of support while tallying the organization\u2019s reach: over 24,000 children served annually, with 3,000 attending daily at 64 locations in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. Jordan Maxwell, a former Boys &amp; Girls Clubs of Greater Tampa Bay Youth of the Year, thanked the advocates and mentors of the 100-year-old organization who changed his life\u2019s trajectory. Donations climbed past $1 million during the Dec. 18, 2025, breakfast at TPepin\u2019s Hospitality Centre to fund academic enrichment, life-skills training and character-building programs.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/7e62ec27ae2c5be7debe93854a957568.jpeg\"\/><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/f5992d2fe05088c2c6367ec27d19a658.jpeg\"\/><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bb74bff1162b6a3ceb6d939509a43444.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhere you start doesn\u2019t define where you can go,\u201d actor Mario Lopez told a roomful of business and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[12981,70824,70826,70825,21997,3821,135,1526,137,136],"class_list":["post-146425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-boys-girls-clubs","tag-carlos-carlito-fuente-jr","tag-carlos-fuente-jr","tag-hal-steinbrenner","tag-mario-lopez","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}