ALAMOSA— The Boys and Girls Club in Alamosa held a grand opening for their new partnership with The Clubhouse Network on Tuesday evening.
The grand opening gave the Boys and Girls Club a chance to show off the steps they have taken to join the Clubhouse network. The Clubhouse is a parallel organization to the Boys and Girls club with similar goals. According to their mission statement, “The Clubhouse mission is to provide a creative and safe out-of-school learning environment where young people from underserved communities work with adult mentors to explore their own ideas, develop new skills, and build confidence in themselves through the use of technology.”
With an aligned set of goals, the grand opening focused on the past and the transition to the future.
Tech/Music Coordinator Garrett Pearson got a taste of the Clubhouse environment with visits to Clubhouses in Edgewater and Lakewood.
“I was really able to see what all these kids were doing” said Pearson
“They were invested in these 3-D Printers, and the Glowforge (3-D laser printer), and they were making this really awesome stuff.”
Seeing what is possible with the new technology Pearson shared his own excitement not only for the future of the club but also for the members.
“Those are all career oriented techniques – you learn about branding, you learn about design, you learn about composition, you learn about application” Pearson told those in attendance.
Alamosa’s Boys and Girls Club Executive Director Aaron Miltenberger shared his experience of working with the kids, “I was really excited about being able to be a part of young people becoming masters of technology, learning to create with technology instead of just learning to consume with technology”
Thanks to the new partnership, the youth of the Boys and Girls Club have access to a myriad of technology to allow the members to flex their creative muscles that span everything from a 3-D printer, a 3-D laser printer/engraver, a sticker printer, a recording studio and plenty of computers loaded with creative software.  
“It’s near and dear to my heart, one of the goals I had when coming back to this club was to help this space become, again, a place where young people could engage in creating. Creating music… creating video, creating video games, websites, programs. Creating with things that didn’t exist 15 years ago”, said Miltenberger.