Photography by Lauren Allen
The East Dallas Boys and Girls Club has been around for quite some time. The building itself was previously home to a grocery store and rumored to have been a movie theater and, at some point, a warehouse.
With all of that, you could say it had developed some character. Floors were uneven, ceiling tiles were coming down and the building was showing its age.
Over the years, the Club received some smaller renovations here and there — leading to portions of the facility and rooms being upgraded. But the team knew it was time to start figuring out how they would transform the space on a larger scale. As they searched for funding opportunities, they kept an eye on the Dallas Mavericks, waiting for their grant cycle to open up.
The original ask within their grant application was for funding for the Club’s computer lab, the Club’s Vice President of Advancement Anthony Valente says.
“Then, as they came in for their tour, they noticed that that Club was in massive need of repairs,” he says.
The gym floor wasn’t in the best condition. The walls were separating and needed a paint job. And some of the rooms needed foundational repairs.
“They said ‘you guys would be a great candidate for an entire club remodel,’ essentially,” Valente says.
The Mavericks advanced through their season, and as they continued winning, they were able to expand their renovation plans for the Club through their NBA Cares partnership — the National Basketball Association’s global social responsibility program, geared towards addressing social issues.
“Apparently, once teams make it into the finals, this is a project that the local team does with the NBA, where they team up and they deliver a massive project to a local nonprofit and we were lucky they chose us, so that as they advanced, the project got bigger and bigger.”
Their computer lab wasn’t the only thing that was going to be upgraded. The Club’s Vice President of Education and Well-Being Juany Valdespino-Gaytan, and CEO Karen Tan said that everything happened quickly, without much time to wrap their heads around the progression of their ‘one-step-at-a-time’ plan that turned into what felt like an overnight development.
The staff kept as much of the renovations a secret as possible from the children, but the cat was out of the bag when a bunch of Bentleys and Mazzeratis surrounded the building — that, and the clusters of men over 6 foot.
“Then they had a big event at our club, which is pretty much invite-only with the NBA Commissioner and the CEO from the Mavs, and some of the players came and played with our kids,” Tan says. “(Dereck) Lively was putting Legos together with our kids.”
The Club celebrated its grand re-opening in early September. The renovations included a play zone, a new basketball court, new basketballs, a new scoreboard and a new STEM lab with computers.
Tan says that the renovations open up the door for new programs, with hopes of expanding their services to include mental health support and access to mental health resources so that the Club can become a “true wraparound center.”
