{"id":195772,"date":"2026-05-18T17:52:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/195772\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T17:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:52:06","slug":"cumberland-gardens-boys-and-girls-club-to-remain-open-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/195772\/","title":{"rendered":"Cumberland Gardens Boys and Girls Club to remain open this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cumberland Gardens Boys and Girls Club, facing budget cuts that threaten its future in south Allentown<\/a>, will remain open at least through the summer thanks to a $100,000 donation from the Lehigh County district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The club is still facing a budget shortfall that could cause it to close in the fall, which is why advocates are calling on possible donors and other government and nonprofit partners to step up and help it remain open long-term.<\/p>\n

Its goal is to raise $500,000 this year to keep its doors open for the next three to five years,<\/a> according to Katarah Jordan, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Allentown.<\/p>\n

Jordan announced in April that the future of the Cumberland Gardens clubhouse, which is next to a public housing complex, is uncertain, and it could close without additional funds.<\/p>\n

The clubhouse\u2019s contract with the Allentown Housing Authority expires this year. Under the decades-old agreement, the authority, which owns the nearby Cumberland Gardens Section 8 housing complex, does not charge the Boys and Girls Club rent for its use of the space, and also covers the cost of maintenance and salaries of staff who work at the location.<\/p>\n

But the housing authority can no longer cover those costs due to cuts to its own budget, according to authority Director Julio Guridy.<\/p>\n

The district attorney\u2019s office is using drug asset forfeiture funds to make the contribution, District Attorney Gavin Holihan said. He called it an investment in future crime prevention via keeping kids safe and out of trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople ask, why is the prosecutor\u2019s office doing this? Because it builds a safer community for all of us,\u201d Holihan said at a news conference Monday. \u201cThis is a long-term strategy to reduce crime and delinquency. I\u2019ll say it this way: If we know that the young are vulnerable and susceptible to the forces of crime and delinquency and evil, and we have the ability to do something about it, and we don\u2019t, and we\u2019re part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, crime committed by youth peaks in the after-school hours<\/a>, and nearly a fifth of crimes committed by children under 18 occur on school days between 3 and 7 p.m. On the other hand, participation in after-school programs increases students\u2019 social skills, academic achievements and career readiness, according to research from the nonprofit After School Alliance.<\/a><\/p>\n

The club is open 3:30-8 p.m. each school day, and offers a basketball league, homework help, and arts and craft programs to the 50-60 kids who attend daily. The clubhouse also operates a summer camp when school is out that includes field trips, career exploration activities and daily meals.<\/p>\n

AJ Rolon, site manager of the Cumberland Gardens Boys and Girls Club and a former \u201cclub kid\u201d himself, said that the district attorney\u2019s donation has given him and the dozens of kids who attend every day \u201chope\u201d for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a community, a safe haven, too, now that they know, that, \u2018all right, I got the summer.\u2019 Let\u2019s keep on pushing,\u201d Rolon said.<\/p>\n

Still, the clubhouse\u2019s future is uncertain once the summer funding runs out. Jordan called on more prospective donors to help keep the clubhouse\u2019s doors open.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think about why this matters, I think about our youth,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cI think about our youth like Emily Pratt, who has come to this clubhouse for well over 12 years. She graduates this year, but would not have made it this far without the support of stable people and mentors, like our individuals that run this clubhouse, but also for the space. When we talk about access, having a clubhouse in a housing authority, is \u2014 it is \u2014 I couldn\u2019t imagine what it would be without having this space here, so we are not going to think about that. We are going to raise the funds. We are going to ask our community to stand up.\u201d<\/p>\n

To donate, go to\u00a0bgcallentown.org\/donate-now\/.<\/p>\n

Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cumberland Gardens Boys and Girls Club, facing budget cuts that threaten its future in south Allentown, will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,433,182,139,28,432],"class_list":["post-195772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}