Ethan Hoagland
In October, Sweet Home’s Boys and Girls Club celebrated the arrival of a new leadership team with a Derby-themed auction fundraiser. The high-energy event brought in tens of thousands of dollars, in part galvanized by a $25,000 donation from UnitedHealthcare CEO Gary Daniels. For Daniels, that donation was born out of a deep connection with the Greater Santiam area.
Daniels grew up in Lebanon before the turn of the century. As a boy, Daniels said he saw the logging industry turn from boom to bust.
“My dad was a logger. If you grew up in that community, you knew the ebbs and flows of the logging business,” Daniels said. “I tell people it used to be a boomtown thanks to the strength of the mills.
“Then obviously living there through that exit was brutal. I got to experience that first hand with my dad having to take jobs sometimes in California.”
As part of an athletic family, Daniels found consistency in the sports programs offered by the Boys and Girls Club of the Greater Santiam. From baseball to basketball, the Club’s activities connected Daniels to the community, and kept him busy while his family worked.
“That’s the reason these clubs are so important. There’s so many stories that happen like that over the years that it’s important to make sure that they’re funded and that people know that community asset is available to them,” Daniels said.
“It means everything to us,” Casey Humphries, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of the Greater Santiam said. “I think it’s just crucial for our sustainability and growth of our organization.”
Since Daniels made the donation during the Fall Benefit Children’s Auction, his initial $25,000 only got the ball rolling. According to a press release about the donation, the $25,000 “enticed another $45,000 in donations from attendees.”
“A lot of people get you to where you’re going, it’s not just you,” Daniels said. “It takes a whole town, a whole village of people willing to bend over backwards. But you gotta work for it. And the Boys and Girls Club helps you get the right foundation.”
“It’s a great story that Gary has,” Humphries said. “Look at where he is, and he was where a lot of these people are sitting right out here in programs right now, and look at what he’s doing.”
In Sweet Home, the Club provides different after school programs from K through 8th grade. For athletics, the Sweet Home Club is gearing up for Spring volleyball. The deadline to register for that is Feb. 16, 2024. Fees range from $128 to $150 based on grade.