Club gym opens after 6 months of repair
By Joann Groff joann@theacorn.com

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers LOVELY JOB- Moorpark community members check out the newly repaired facilities at the reopening ceremony for the Boys & Girls Club of Moorpark on Thursday. The gym was repaired after suffering rain and wind damage last winter.

Nearly six months after 80mile-an-hour winds blew the shingles off its gym and rain flooded the inside, Moorpark Boys & Girls Club celebrated the reopening of its facility.

The updated gym opened last Thursday, with a gathering at the site on Casey Road.

After storms in the beginning of the year caused flooding and other damage, the gym was rendered useless. Its floors and windows have been replaced and its roof repaired. The center also got a fresh coat of paint- inside and out.

About 100 people came to check out the club's new digs.

"I thought it went very well," said Jennifer Schwabauer, development director of the Moorpark Boys & Girls Club. "We got a lot of great, great feedback. People were thrilled to see how nice the building looked, and they were excited over how many sports activities we can have now that it's open."

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers SINGING UP A STORM- Children from the Boys & Girls Club of Moorpark perform a song Thursday at the reopening ceremony for the club's gym, which was repaired after suffering rain and wind damage last winter. From left are Austyn Williams, 6; Guillermo Castro, 6; Tajuan Tyler, 6; Kayli Joyce, 6; Matthew Gordon, 5, and Jaden Brooks, 5.

Boys & Girls Club representatives credit "a good and caring" insurance company as a big part of why the gym is now back up and running.

"We now have a nearly refurbished gymnasium and operations are back to normal with even greater opportunity for rental activities," said Lyle Pennington, president of the board of directors of the Moorpark club.

Pennington said they are looking at additional opportunities to further update the gym and make it a "firstclass facility in all respects."

There had been plans on the table to move or to build a new facility, but for now, those plans have been set aside.

"That's temporarily on hold because of circumstances beyond our control, as far as the economy and housing," Schwabauer said. "We are still a small facility, and there are so many kids in our program, and more interested in coming. We are kind of busting at the seams. But it's still on the drawing board."