The Boys & Girls Club of Dane County is looking to raise $700,000 for its youth development programs as it gets set to host its annual signature event, MOVE4BGC (previously known as BIKE4BGC), on Saturday, July 16.
The highlight of this year’s event, for many old-school music fans, will be a performance by music legend Gladys Knight, known as’The Empress of Soul,’ on Saturday night at the Overture Center. Immediately after the concert, there will be an All White Party Affair with entertainment provided by Dru Hill, a contemporary adult R&B artist who recorded seven top-40 hits, also at the Overture Center.
Everything will kick off in the morning at McKee Farms Park in Fitchburg with the annual BGCDC bike ride, which is celebrating its 20-year anniversary this year. Participants choose to be part of a team or at the individual level and which event they would like to do whether it be a 50-mile bike ride, 25-mile bike ride, 8-mile bike ride, 5k run/walk, 2-mile walk, or yoga.
“We’re still looking for riders … so if people want to just come and walk, bike, or ride … all they got to do is register and that’s it,” Michale Johnson, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, tells Madison365.
Will Johnson be biking this year?
“Yeah, I’m doing the 25-mile loop. I would do the 50-mile but I don’t want to show up to the All-White Party all sore,” Johnson laughs.
Once the bike ride is over, the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County will have plenty of entertainment.
The All White Party will be a star-studded affair beyond headliner Dru Hill and other local musicians, with Omar Gooding from the film Baby Boy and the television show Hangin with Mr. Cooper, Golden Brooks from the television show Girlfriends (Mya) and Black-Ish, and Pooch Hall from the television show The Game and Ray Donovan all in attendance.
“The jam of the night will be Gladys Knight, who’s an 8-time award-winning singer and an icon and she’s going to perform and then we’re highlighting a talented young lady [Hunter Davies] who is 16 years old and my son, Mke, who is performing,” Johnson says. “There’s going to be a special presentation from the governor’s office in the Department of Workforce Development and we will make some other announcements that night as well.”
The evening will also feature the smooth stylings of the R&B group, After 7, who will open for Knight.
Johnson says that for 14 years he’s been wanting to do some sort of music festival here in Madison by celebrating Black entertainment and also highlighting local youth.
“To have a legend like Gladys Knight performing is absolutely amazing,” Johnson says. “We got people coming from Philadelphia, Florida. Indiana, Illinois, Georgia. I’m looking at some of the addresses of people who are buying tickets, and I had a lady email me that she is bringing 15 people from Florida and that she’s been waiting to do something like this over her birthday weekend.
“It’s great to also use this venue to highlight our local young people,” he adds. “I’m hoping that next year when we do this, between places like the Overture Center and the Alliant Energy Center, that will be able to bring in groups like Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Fantasia, Mary J Blige, and then do like a Gospel Fest on that Sunday.”
Johnson says if all goes well, he doesn’t see any reason why they can’t replicate it next year and let the event get bigger and bigger.
“Why can’t we have our own version of Summerfest like they do in Milwaukee? Or the Jazz Festival? I think Madison has that potential,” Johnson says. “Let me put it in perspective. If did five concerts and we packed the Alliant Energy Center, you would gross $11 million and probably net $7 or 8 million of that. That would be a huge economic boom for about 15 nonprofit organizations. It’d be huge for the hotel industry and local restaurants. That’s my dream and I’m hoping that someday we’ll get there. “
In the meantime, Boys and Girls Club is looking to raise $700,000 with its three major events coming up this weekend. Johnson says that they are already at $550,000. The money raised will go towards the many youth development programs at BGCDC as well as the club’s new workforce development center.
‘Things are going well for us overall at BGCDC. We’re really looking forward to the great stuff that we’re doing for kids and summer camp and field trips,” Johnson says. “We just took a group of kids last week to Washington D.C. to visit the White House and to visit Georgetown University and some other places. So there are always a lot of great things going on at the Boys and Girls Club. I’m really fortunate to be in a position to help orchestrate and coordinate with a very talented team and board that allows us to do great things for young people and families in our community.”
For more information on MOVE4BGC events on Saturday, July 16, click here.
