An audience of hundreds dining in the gymnasium of the Boys and Girls Club of the Harbor Area witnessed Cynthia Madrigal (center) present ILWU longshore Local 13 President Mark Mendoza with a framed picture she created in an art class offered at the Boys and Girls Club in appreciation for the union’s support as the club’s executive director Mike Lansing (right) looked on.
The ILWU helped raise $135,000 that will help the Boys and Girls Club, making this the second year that the ILWU has led fundraising efforts for the organization.
“There’s no one who plays a bigger role in the prosperity of the harbor area than the ILWU and shippers,” Lansing said. The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor is the largest private child development organization in the South Bay, operating 14 program sites in San Pedro and Wilmington. With almost 20,000 full- and part-time union members and casual workers, longshore workers are the largest industrial workforce in the region.
“When it comes to helping kids, the ILWU leaves our differences with PMA at the water’s edge,” said Local 13 President Mark Mendoza, whose local gave $25,000 to be a Gold Sponsor of the luncheon.
“I want to congratulate the ILWU and PMA for coming together to make a difference in the lives of these kids,” said Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-Torrance), who attended the luncheon. “After school programs save kids.”
School safety and child development experts agree that kids who have a safe place to spend after school hours are less likely to engage in crime or be victimized by it.
The Oct. 20 fundraiser will help hold the club’s annual membership fee to $20, continue offering free educational tutoring, computer classes, music classes, arts and crafts, dance and sport activities to more than 1,500 kids a day.
In the last decade, local fundraising efforts for the Boys and Girls Club have netted more than $2 million and resulted in dramatic growth.
Local 13 was joined by the PMA as Gold sponsors. APL and ILWU clerks’ Local 63 each donated $10,000 to be Silver sponsors. Organizers also gathered Bronze sponsorships ($5,000 each) from the ILWU foremen’s Local 94, Metropolitan Stevedore Company, Sims Hugo Neu, Sound Energy Solutions, Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, SSA Marine, Union Pacific, West Basin Container Terminals.
—Bill Orton
