1 Million Young People Served: Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club Celebrates 20 Years at Kingshighway Campus by Launching Facilities Improvement Campaign; $250,000 Grant from Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation Kicks Off Fund Drive ST. LOUIS, Aug. 22, 2002 Mathews-Dickey President, CEO and co-founder Martin L. Mathews unveiled a comprehensive plan to improve the facility and kicked off the campaign by announcing a $250,000 grant from the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation at a news conference attended by leaders from throughout the community in the facility’s main gymnasium. Alonzo Byrd [right], director of corporate communications and community affairs for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, presents Martin L. Mathews [left], president, CEO and co-founder of Mathews-Dickey Boys' & Girls' Club, with a ceremonial basketball representing a lead grant of $250,000 from the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation at a press conference that kicked off the Club's $750,000 Building Reconstruction and Maintenance Facilities Fund Drive. The Enterprise Foundation grant represents one of many that the company has made recently in support of St. Louis-based institutions. “This generous lead grant from the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation is a very important step in restoring our facility,” Mathews said. “Twenty years of wholesome activities for a million young people have resulted in a great deal of wear and tear to our facilities. The fund drive will bring the Club back to tip-top condition to enable us to continue providing positive activities that encourage our children to become outstanding citizens in their community and country.” Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club provides educational, cultural and sports programs for some 40,000 young people annually throughout the St. Louis area. Mathews stated that repairs and improvements are needed for several facilities, including new roofing, replacing the lower gymnasium floor, new field lights for the James ‘Cool’ Papa Bell Stadium, reinforcement of structural steel and painting throughout the facility, among others. “The Taylor family and Enterprise Rent-A-Car long have been committed to supporting the neighborhoods and communities where we live and do business,” said Alonzo Byrd, Jr., director of corporate communications and community affairs for Enterprise Rent-A-Car. “We’re hopeful that our contribution to the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club will help the organization to continue its positive influence in lives of St. Louis area youth.” The Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation is the charitable arm of St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car, North America’s largest car rental company. Since founding the company in 1957, Jack Taylor and his family, as well as the Foundation, have donated to causes large and small more than $140 million in just the past decade. Following the news conference, Enterprise Rent-A-Car employees teamed with Club boys and girls in a pick-up basketball game to mark the event before a commemorative ball was retired to Mathews’ office, where it joined other memorabilia collected in the facility’s first 20 years. “When President Reagan dedicated this campus in the summer of 1982, he declared it a model for the country. Twenty years later, with the support of St. Louis community leaders like Enterprise Rent-A-Car, I think we’ve, indeed, achieved that high regard. And we plan on staying there for the next 20 years,” Mathews said. He also thanked long-time board chairman Rev. William G. Gillespie and Reconstruction & Maintenance Committee members Charlie Ruprecht, Richard Casey, Ray Maritz, Michael Clark, Karl Grice, Frank Mueller and Robert Grote for their leadership and support. Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club is a non-profit, 501(c)3 health and human service agency that provides educational, cultural and sports programs for more than 40,000 young men and women throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area. For more information on the Reconstruction & Maintenance Drive, CLICK HERE. Archived News: (April 10, 2001) Mathews-Dickey ‘Brings on the Girls’ © 2004 Mathews Dickey Boys' & Girls' Club site. Designed by the Moore Design Group.