Dave Bauer new director at B&G Club

Scott Swanson

Dave Bauer has built a gym, practically from the ground up, and played a leading role in increasing public awareness and commitment to physical fitness in Sweet Home.

Now he’s got a new project: Building the Boys and Girls Club programs for local children.

Bauer, 49, took over May 16 as the new senior director for the Sweet Home branch of the Boys and Girls Club of the Greater Santiam.

“Kids have always been a passion of mine,” he said. “Steelhead basically has served the community more or less from the adult side of things. Since the club has matured, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to serve the community and serve children at the same time. This was it.”

Bauer and his wife Vicki founded Steelhead Strength and Fitness, on the corner of 13th Avenue and Main Street, in 2006 with some friends. The two have built the gym into a center for physical fitness, workout classes and a base for local runners, particularly the Girls on the Run club.

Before that he worked as a manager at Hewlett-Packard for seven years and has been involved for 17 years in children’s ministries at Community Chapel, church youth groups and AWANA, and in various community leadership roles such as Chamber of Commerce board member, Sweet Home Area Revitalization Effort (SHARE) Steering Committee member, and organizer of Lose for Life community weight-loss effort.

“My passion is serving people,” Bauer said. “I believe strongly in customer and community service.”

Though he grew up in Lebanon, Bauer said his mother stayed home and, consequently, he didn’t participate in the Boys and Girls Club as a youngster other than to play baseball.

He got interested in physical fitness and Vicki started Steelhead partly as a community service, he said.

It was that interest in serving that brought him to the attention of the Boys and Girls Club leadership, Executive Director Kris Latimer said.

“We’ve been looking for an individual who was ingrained in the community, whose personal mission and vision matched that of the organization’s leadership and who had demonstratable management experience and community involvement,” she said. “We got the whole package with Dave.”

Bauer said he was “really sold” by the club’s emphasis: to produce responsible citizens.

“I was really unaware of the programs they have, especially the after-school programs they have for kids, and the mission they have to reach kids in need to help them be better, successful adults.

“That is great for kids and great for the community as well. It creates good citizens, ones that are involved in their community.”

Bauer is the third director the Sweet Home branch has had in as many years, following a period during which the position was unfilled. He said one of his major goals is to bring “organization” to the club and “help build an alliance between the Lebanon and Sweet Home clubs under the umbrella of Santiam.”

One of his first assignments, Latimer said, will be to create a Branch Committee for Sweet Home, similar to a booster club, which will provide parents and community members to “engage with the organization’s mission at a level that is less intense than its Board of Directors.”

Another goal, he said, is to increase the “donation pool” to “provide more programs for these kids, to serve more kids.”

He learned quickly, he said, that for some club members, the meals they get at the club may be it for the day, particularly during the summer.

“We provide lunch and a snack. For some kids, that’s their dinner.”

He also wants to build summer participation, which sees “a huge downturn” due to lack of transportation via school buses that are rolling during the school year.

“I want to bring more awareness of the Boys and Girls Club mission in Sweet Home,” he said. “The mission is really about programs with purpose – to keep kids in school and create successful adults.

That includes homework help and summer programs to reduce summer learning loss, all the way to internships for high school students.

We want to create an impact in these kids’ lives so that they become successful. We want to pull kids off the street and keep them out of mischief, out of jail.”

“We want to show kids they have value and that we care about them, that we care about their future.”

For more information on the Branch Committee, contact Bauer at (541) 367-6421 or [email protected].

Total
0
Share