Down are the number of kids coming into the club each day. Fewer staff are running the games and programs. But perhaps worst of all, the club's operating budget is down -- a whopping $50,000 less than last year.

That's meant some changes for the club, now in its 18th year in Wake Forest, including decreased hours, program cuts and new fees for members on teacher workdays.

From the all-boy club that met in the Wake Forest Elementary School gym to today's 791-member club with a specially-designed facility on Wingate Street, Wake Forest club Director Hugh McLean has seen a host of changes in his 17-year tenure, most of them good. But this change has him looking for ways to stretch dollars and cut costs. "It's a shame," he says.

"We're still a good Boys & Girls Club. We're still a good program. (Though) we're not as good as we were this time last year."

Hard decisions

Forty percent of the operating budget for the five Triangle clubs' (Raleigh Boys, Raleigh Girls, Wake Forest, Zebulon Boys & Girls and Underwood Boys & Girls) operating budget comes from the Triangle United Way. With the United Way's fundraising down this year mainly due to the economy, the organization cut all its member agencies' funding by 25 percent beginning this July. "We lost $50,000 in operating expenses," says McLean. "You've got to make up that Š some way."

That means McLean has had to make some tough choices. He's had to close on Saturdays and, for the first time, the entire week of Christmas. He let one part-time staffer go and cut hours of other part-timers. The juggling means the club's art room is open just three days a week instead of five or six, and the educational area (where kids can study or do homework) is operational just four days a week. Both areas have also had their budgets trimmed by 30 to 40 percent.

McLean insists he'll never raise operating dollars "on the backs of the families we serve," though beginning this year the club started charging $5 per child for entrance on teacher workdays and school holidays. The only other time the club charges for admission is in the summer and that's just $22 per child per week.

The money isn't enough to put a dent in his shortfall. "It might pay for several more days of staff in program areas," McLean says.

The Wake Forest club began in June 1985 with fewer than 100 boys. Then elementary school PE teacher King Hill ran the club until McLean took over the following year. Over the years, the club has offered thousands of area kids a variety of opportunities and a safe place to play and learn after school, on Saturdays and during summer vacation.

McLean has always been careful to note his club is not a day care center. Boys and girls 6 to 18 are accepted as members during the club's annual spring registration, paying only a $7.50 fee per child. Children are supervised, but can join in any activity -- sports, art, technology, games, studying or socializing -- they choose.

The club building, completed in 1997, features an expansive great room, full of ping pong, pool, and foos ball tables. Around the building are a number of smaller rooms used for more specific activities: homework, computer use, art classes, snack time and meetings. A large gym hosts the club's street hockey and team handball league games.

The club also has options for older members -- an Outdoor Club, Torch and Keystone clubs which work on community service projects and the Smart Moves program, where preteens and teens learn about the dangers of drug, alcohol and tobacco use and how to make good decisions regarding those substances.

Wake Forest's is the only club in the nation to feature Camp Smart Kids, where middle and high school students use a camplike format to teach elementary schoolers an age-appropriate version of the Smart Kids curriculum.

And the club often offers activities off site: trips to local university and professional sporting events, the Raleigh club's Halloween carnival and a two-week summer day camp sponsored by the Triangle Boys & Girls Club.

All this and McLean says he's down an average of 20 to 25 members a day in comparison to this time last year. He attributes the decrease to cuts in programs.

Some members, he says, will come to the club every day, no matter what. Others, he believes, are looking for the ever-changing list of unscheduled activities and games the club's had to cut because of limited staff. In that, McLean sees a silver lining. "We've had to get more volunteers."

Plugging the holes

Club members arrive every day after school from most every northern Wake County school -- from Wildwood Forest and the Durant Road, Wakefield, Wake Forest-Rolesville schools to Franklin Academy. Most come from middle-class families, though members' household incomes run the gamut.

McLean spends most of his time at the club, officiating games, organizing activities and reciting the day's list of announcements. Fundraising, he knows, is a necessary part of his job.

The club's single biggest fund raiser is its Steak & Steak dinner each May. Last year the event raised $5,000. But even better, the director says with a smile, is the awareness of the club's activities. Triangle Boys & Girls Club also helps fund raise and has produced a promotional packet this year to advance that effort.

Two recent supply drives by local corporations helped the club stock up on needed goods like paper, pencils, calculators and sporting equipment.

"Times are tough for non-profits," says McLean, who knows things may get worse before they get better.

"It is possible we could cut more program, more staff. If we don't find a way to put that money back into the budget, it's definitely a possibility."