Shaping the Lives of Rochester Youth
Although other cities have had Boys Clubs for more than a hundred years, Rochester was without a Club of its own until the 1970s. In the summer of 1971, two prominent Rochesterians who were members of the national organization’s board of directors – Paul Miller, then president and CEO of the Gannett Company, and Howard Carver, then CEO of Gleason Works – assembled a small group of area leaders to form a club for Rochester youth. Early supporters included F. Ritter Shumway, Lester Frankenstein, Alan Boucher, Calvin Mayne and Gilbert McCurdy.
The Club’s first headquarters was located on the old Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) campus in the Third Ward. By October of 1980, headquarters had moved to its current location at 500 Genesee Street to better serve its primary client base – the youth of Rochester and the surrounding areas.
Over the years, our programs and services have grown in both number and quality. Today, Boys & Girls Clubs of Rochester offers a multitude of nationally recognized programs that have proven themselves effective – programs that address today’s most pressing youth issues, and teach young people the skills they need to succeed in life.