Chicago Neighborhood Boys and Girls Club Marks 80 Years Helping Kids

Chicago - The Neighborhood Boys and Girls Club, a Chicago institution, is celebrating 80 years and looking forward to another 80.

For kids who come to the club near Western and Irving Park, they won't find Xbox, Wii or PlayStation. What they find is good old fashioned fun, and they end up loving it.

The NBGC had its beginnings during the Great Depression of the early 1930s. Kids would gather to play ball on the field next to the Chicago company that made an adding machine.

The son of the company president would often watch the kids at play.

"Robert Bueller went to his Dad, Carl, and said I want to fund a football program for the boys in the community," said Bill Abplanalp, the director of the club. "They approached Dick Valentine and asked Dick to go out into the community and bring as many boys in as he could, so Dick Valentine went up and down the streets and got enough boys for six football teams. ...It went so well, he was asked to do it throughout the year."

Through the years, the club has been there for thousands and thousands of Chicago kids, including Hollywood star George Gobel and baseball great Moose Skowran.

Current board member, successful businessman, husband and father of three Rick West said the NGBC was a big part of his childhood and feels this place is needed now more than ever!

"I think the club is an integral part of who I am. And I think it's more important today, with this economy. The kids these days are competing on a global scale, and this kind of stuff raised locally helps them when they get out to the workplace," West said.

Many of the teens who work at the club also get college scholarship money.

For more information, go to www.nbgc.org