Former Commissioner Ray Trapp Joins Boys & Girls Clubs to Expand Triad Reach

Ray Trapp spent years fighting food deserts and rezoning disputes across Guilford County. Now he is taking on a different kind of gap: a city of roughly 300,000 people with no Boys & Girls Club.

Trapp has been named Vice President of Advancement at Boys & Girls Clubs of the Greater Triad, a newly rebranded organization formerly known as the Boys & Girls Club of Greater High Point. The senior role covers fundraising and development, brand management, and communications, and Trapp joins at a hinge point in the organization's history.

CEO Dr. William Gibson's "Future Ready Triad" initiative aims to grow the organization from six current clubs, spread across High Point and Asheboro, to between 25 and 30 locations across the Piedmont Triad by 2030. A Greensboro location was targeted for opening by the end of 2025, with a Winston-Salem club slated for early spring. The organization also identified Kernersville, Burlington, Graham, Thomasville, and Reidsville as part of the broader expansion.

The need in Greensboro is not abstract. Approximately 79 children currently make the commute from the Greensboro area to clubs in High Point because no local option exists. To build the groundwork ahead of a physical location, the organization formed a Greensboro Advisory Council, which recently held its first official meeting with David Black appointed as chair.

Trapp brings a resume shaped almost entirely by Triad institutions. He joined the Guilford County Board of Commissioners in 2012 and, four years later, earned the National Association of Counties' Public Health Achievement Award for the "Food Desert Storm" project, an initiative targeting food insecurity across Guilford County. The Triad Business Journal also recognized him as one of its "40 Business Leaders Under 40." He later resigned his commissioner seat to join NC A&T State University, then moved to the Research Triangle Foundation in January 2021 as Vice President of Strategic Engagement. Earlier in his career, he served as executive director of the Piedmont Triad Apartment Association and as chairman of the Greensboro Zoning Commission, with additional board service at the Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau, Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro, and Citizens for Economic and Environmental Justice.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America, which backs the Greater Triad affiliate, carries more than 165 years of national history. North Carolina currently supports 122 clubs serving more than 32,000 youth statewide. If Dr. Gibson's 2030 target holds, the Triad's growth alone would represent one of the more ambitious regional expansions in the state's club network.