Why this $2.8 million Columbus teen center will be built — and for whom it’ll be named
More than 100 additional teens will be able to participate in activities designed to help improve their academics, health, character and leadership at the North Columbus Boys & Girls Club when its new facility is built.
At the groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday, the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Chattahoochee Valley announced the new teen center will be named the John F. Flournoy Sr. College and Career Center.
Flournoy served on the BGCCV board for 53 years, including as chairman of several committees. He was president of the board in 1978 and has chaired the organization’s Georgia Area Council. In 2012, he was inducted into the Boys & Girls Clubs of Georgia Hall of Fame.
The annual polo tournament Flournoy has hosted for more than 40 years at his farm in Upatoi has raised more than $3 million for the BGCCV. He led the BGCCV’s capital campaigns in 1994 and 2001, generating revenue to build new facilities, expand programs and establish an endowment.
“He has supported the clubs financially, as well as with his time and boundless energy,” BGCCV president and CEO Rodney Close told the Ledger-Enquirer. “Mr. Flournoy’s dedication and service to the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Chattahoochee Valley is unprecedented. His service to the community goes even further.”
Flournoy is chairman of the Columbus Gateways Committee and past president of the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley. He serves on the Mid-America Apartment Communities board and has been a board member at Columbus Bank and Trust and the W.C. Bradley Company.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration at the University of North Carolina in 1961, Flournoy served in the U.S. Marine Corps and the Marine Reserve Flight Squadron at the Naval Air Station in Atlanta. He received 15 air medals and the Navy Distinguished Flying Cross for his service during the Vietnam War.
Since 1967, his Flournoy Companies have designed, developed and managed multifamily housing in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.
New center’s mission
The BGCCV already has a teen center adjacent to the South Columbus Boys & Girls Club, named after benefactor J. Barnett Woodruff.
This project, estimated to cost $2.8 million, culminates the BGCCV’s $10.6 million Great Futures Capital Campaign, which included the purchase of the former Edgewood Elementary School for the relocation of the East Columbus Boys & Girls Club, the renovation of the J. Barnett Woodruff Boys & Girls Club and the refreshing of technology and updating of vehicles throughout the organization.
The campaign’s purpose is to “ensure that our club members have the tools and resources they need in order to secure a great future where they are able to graduate on time with a plan for the future, go on to live a healthy lifestyle and give back to their community,” Close said.
The BGCCV serves more than 2,500 children ages 6-18 at five locations. The North Columbus branch has 320 club members, including 35 teens. Its annual membership goal is 600. The facility’s teen room limits its capacity to serve more teens. So adding a 6,800-square-foot teen center at the site is expected to help the branch grow its membership and better serve current members.
“This teen center will provide us the opportunity to serve an additional 50-60 members,” Close said. “Our ultimate goal is to serve 150-200 teens a year at this location.” The South Columbus teen center has approximately 250 members.
Hecht Burdeshaw is the architect and Pound Construction is the contractor for the North Columbus teen center, which Close estimates will open in early 2023.
Close credits Flournoy for leading the vision to build the teen center at the North Columbus location, where the BGCCV’s first club opened in 1937.
“I’m so excited that we’re about to make his dream come true,” Close said. “The Boys & Girls Clubs of The Chattahoochee Valley has been able to meet the needs of so many youth because of board members like John, who believes every kid deserves a chance to be successful.”
The teen center in South Columbus also officially will be dubbed a college and career center, sending its members the same message: “We’ve got to get kids in the mindset when they leave here,” Close said, “they leave here with a plan.”
“Stepping up”
During the groundbreaking ceremony, BGCCV board chairman Jeremy Brewer told the audience, “The needs of the community outgrew our facilities. What today represents is the Boys & Girls Clubs stepping up and meeting these new demands in our community. It’s really everybody. It’s the board. It’s the staff. It’s the kids. … It’s really the entire community stepping up.”
Jack Turner, the BGCCV campaign chairman said, “Knowing that our teens need a place of their own, it was imperative that we have one here.”
After Close announced the name of the teen center and unveiled the architect’s rendering, Flournoy cracked up the crowd when asked from his seat in the audience, “You did what?”
Flournoy commended the BGCCV’s leadership and supporters.
“There’s always been somebody helping us to do this over the years,” he said. “. . . Thanks to all of you for being loyal sponsors and participants in the program.”
And, he said, it’s a wise investment.
“I can tell you, you’re getting so much benefit from the dollars that you raise and you contribute yourself,” Flournoy said. “I mean, there’s almost nothing else in the community that does so much.”
This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 3:59 PM.
