Ribbon Cutting for New Ripon Boys & Girls Club

A dream 10 years in the making came true Thursday with a ribbon-cutting celebration for a new Boys & Girls Club in Ripon.

It’s the third site for the Boys & Girls Club of the Tri-County Area with its main facility in Berlin and another site in Green Lake. Many of those involved in the planning and fundraising spoke during the ceremony.

The common theme was they identified a need in the Ripon area and worked through the challenges to raise more than $12 million to build the 40,000 square-foot facility and fund a $2 million endowment.

Boys & Girls Club CEO Jayson Presto says, “It’s a place where kids can come and learn, and have fun, and eat, and make friendships and relationships, and have positive adult relationships.” But he says it’s so much more than that. He says it has all the elements of a Boys & Girls Club, but also non-traditional offerings like a licensed childcare center and a skilled trade’s workshop for teens.

Over 200 donors contributed to the fundraising for the new facility ranging from a few dollars to more than $1 million. Presto says they are grateful to each of them and anyone who worked toward making the dream come true.