Wednesday, April 22, 1998 | 9:58 a.m.
Scanning the newly painted walls of the gymnasium of the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club at 800 Martin Luther King Blvd., General Colin Powell smiled.
"I see the cinder-block walls and all the other materials that went into this marvelous facility, and I realize that it takes a lot of this stuff to construct a jail -- which is something we've been doing much too much in recent years," Powell said Tuesday.
The general, chairman of America's Promise -- The Alliance for Youth, a national campaign on behalf of the nation's young people, was in Las Vegas Tuesday to issue an official membership charter to Agassi Boys & Girls Club -- the 2,000th Boys & Girls Club established in the United States.
Powell praised the 138-year-old organization as one of the nation's most successful youth development networks, aggressively partnering with local communities to reach children.
He also thanked Agassi and other supporters who rallied around the West Las Vegas youth and funded a major expansion and renovation of the A.D. Guy facility, which had been serving West Las Vegas since 1990.
"This is what corporate leadership is all about," Powell said. "We're not the only mammals who have figured out that if you're going to have cubs, you're going to need a pride to help raise them."
Agassi, who is playing in the Monte Carlo Open in Monaco through April 26, did not attend the event.
The new Agassi club opened in April 1997 and already has welcomed more than 1,000 additional members, many of whom live at the nearby Marble Manor Housing Development.
In addition to becoming the 2,000th club chartered by Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Agassi unit is also the nation's 320th Boys & Girls Club located in public housing.
On behalf of the organization, Powell also accepted a check for $20 million from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, earmarked for the establishment of additional clubs in public housing and other communities in need.
Boys & Girls Clubs officials said this past decade has been one of tremendous growth for the national organization that was founded in 1860 in Hartford, Conn., as a haven for indigent children.
Roxanne Spillett, president of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, noted that since the mid 1980s, the organization has become the country's fastest-growing youth development network.
In the past 1O years, she said, Boys & Girls Clubs chartered more than 1,000 new clubs, expanding its population of youth served to more than 2.8 million annually.
"The dramatic growth of Boys & Girls Clubs is fueled by committed volunteer leaders who care about our children, today and tomorrow," said Spillett, who noted that every week four new clubs open somewhere in America.
"That's a lot kids who are provided with a home away from home."
Jackie Valdera, Nevada State Youth of the Year for the national organization, said the work of Boys & Girls Clubs is more important today than ever before.
"I've been a member since I was eight," said 18-year-old Valdera, who attends Community College of Southern Nevada. "I grew up on 28th Street, and I can tell you this organization has helped me a great deal. The educational, recreational and vocational opportunities are just incredible."
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