ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office is donating $100,000 in drug forfeiture funds to help keep an Allentown Boys and Girls Club facility open.
Forfeiture funds include money seized from convicted drug dealers, according to a news release from the DA’s office.
The DA’s office said the Boys and Girls Club of Allentown’s Cumberland Gardens offers educational and recreational after-school and summer programs for hundreds of children each year. The facility has served the South Side Allentown community for nearly five decades.
According to the DA’s office, the Cumberland Gardens location had faced possible closure due to a cut in federal funding to the Allentown Housing Authority.
The DA’s office said the funding cut is leading to the Boys and Girls Club having to pay rent for their Clubhouse that was previously donated, while also now covering the cost of staff.
The goal of the donation is to help the Boys and Girls Club serve children in and around the Allentown community while continuing to reduce violent crime and the “cascading effects of drug addiction,” the DA’s office said in its news release.
The overall goal of the facility is a long-term plan to raise $500,000 to ensure the center will remain open for at least several years.
DA Gavin Holihan said he hoped the office’s donation encourages others in the community to donate as well.