Lake Elsinore Boys & Girls Club celebrates grand opening

About 200 people attended the opening of Lake Elsinore’s first Boys & Girls Club amid balloons, music, food, drink and dignitaries all giving each other well-deserved pats on the back for bringing the club’s plans from mere dreams to a solid brick and mortar structure.

Showered with the lion’s share of the credit were Lake Elsinore City Councilwoman Genie Kelley, who ran with the idea, and David H. Murdock of Castle & Cook, who decided the best way to help the community with its Boys & Girls Club was simply to build it for them and hand it over.

The first part of the grand opening, held at the club on November 16, allowed guests to tour the beautiful 5,500-square-foot facility that houses a computer lab, pool tables, foosball and a lounge. The first building at the future Alberhill Park, the site will eventually include a sports park with swimming pools, according to an artist’s conception on display at the event last Thursday. All will be a part of the Castle & Cooke Alberhill Ranch housing development that over the course of 20 years will include about 6,000 homes, schools and retail and commercial sites at the far northern edge of the city of Lake Elsinore.

Tommy Fileto, technical director for the new club, stood at the door beaming with pride while handing out event programs. He said he was a “club kid” himself and is very aware of the positive influence it can have on a youngster.

Among those attending the event were Lake Elsinore City Council and school board members; Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster, who was thanked for giving $50,000 worth of discretionary funds for programs at the site; and State Assemblyman John Benoit.

Speakers included Lake Elsinore Mayor Bob Magee, who told the audience that in 1912 the Alberhill Schoolhouse opened to “care for and comfort the children of miners who worked long hours at the mine.” Now, nearly 100 years later, this new facility will serve children, some of whose parents also work long hours.

Magee said he hopes the link to the community’s children lasts another 100 years “and all who enter here dare to dream extreme.”

The new building was built to resemble the old school.

The club is situated on Lake Street, north of the Lake Elsinore Outlets, and will officially open on December 2.