Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
The Yelm-branch Boys and Girls Club of Thurston County has officially planted its roots in the city for the next half-century, as Yelm City Council unanimously approved extending the use agreement between the organization and the city to last 50 years.
Additionally, the use agreement between the Yelm-branch Boys and Girls Club of Thurston County and the City of Yelm will be reviewed every five years.
Todd Stancil, Yelm City Administrator, said the use agreement extension has been discussed for roughly a month-and-a-half now.
“In 2019, the City of Yelm entered into a five-year agreement with the Thurston County Boys and Girls Club to lease half of the previous Yelm City Hall,” Stancil said. “In August of 2021, the City of Yelm and Boys and Girls Club amended the agreement to provide the entire space to the club.”
Due to the rapid growth of the City of Yelm and surrounding cities, as well as the success and popularity of the Yelm-branch Boys and Girls Club of Thurston County, Stancil sees an apparent need for an expansion of the organization’s current location.
Stancil added that leadership from the Yelm-branch has stepped up to explore and apply for different grants that would pay for the cost of expanding the existing building.
“Due to the size, scope and cost associated with expanding the building, Boys and Girls Club leadership has requested a longer-term agreement with the City of Yelm,” Stancil said. “Amendment number two would provide the security and commitment needed to secure future funding.”
Additionally, Stancil said with amendment two, you’ll see the length of the use agreement has been expanded to a 50-year term with five year increments, meaning every half-decade the city and the organization will revisit the agreement to ensure its still efficiently working.
“Over the last month and a half, we went back and forth between our city attorney and the Boys and Girls Club to make sure that this met both of the needs and concerns that anyone may have had,” Stancil said.
On Sept. 1, Shellica Trevino, Boys and Girls Club of Thurston County chief financial officer, attended a Yelm City Council study session meeting and presented to the council on the concept of a potential location expansion.
She claimed that the organization closed out 2025 serving 176 total youth from the greater-Yelm community. Additionally, morning attendance averaged out around 50-kids per morning, while evening attendance welcomed an average of 45-kids each day.
“As you know, in your community lots of families leave town to go to work so having that option early in the morning is super important,” Trevino said, on Sept. 1. “About half the kids who attend the Yelm club qualify for free and reduced lunch. That’s an important note based on those families and their ability to pay for childcare, whether it’s licensed child care or license exempt like we are. We know that half, if not more, I would venture to say it’s more like 70% of the families that we serve really need support with lower-cost fees. That comes through in the way of scholarships, fundraising and anything we can do to keep our fees as low as possible.”
Additionally, the Yelm-branch Boys and Girls Club of Thurston County has served well over 500 individual local youth.
During the study session meeting in September, Trevino presented “the most hopeful option” regarding expansion at the Yelm location, including a mini gymnasium for attendees to play basketball and partake in other athletic activities in. She claimed that the style of gymnasium is popular throughout the country, but isn’t intended to host legitimate sporting games.
Additionally, the proposed mini gym is roughly 3,000 square feet, and would be constructed on top of its current parking lot.
Aside from the new athletic facility, Trevino said there wouldn’t be many other changes to the current building.
“We could do so much more if we were able to clean up the sightlines,” she said, on Sept. 1. “That middle area is what we would call the games room or the commons, and everything is kind of built off of that,” Trevino said. “You’d have an art room, a tech lab, a teen center. All of these things are feeding off of that common area. This would allow us to double the amount of kids that are served out of that location.
“We take what we get and we make the best out of it,” she continued. “You guys gave us something that we could really work with. I’m deeply grateful for that, but there’s more that we can do.”
