Dutch Bros. Yuma donates $1 per drink to Boys & Girls Clubs

Dutch Bros. customers in Yuma helped steer part of each purchase toward youth services Friday, when participating stores donated $1 from every drink sold to Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley. The one-day fundraiser linked a high-traffic local business to a club site at 1100 S. 13th Ave. that serves more than 100 children and families and stays open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. through July 22.

The impact can be measured in plain numbers. At the Boys & Girls Club of Yuma, annual membership costs $30 per youth, after-school programming costs $80 per month, and summer sessions cost $100 per week with annual membership. That means every 30 drinks sold would cover one annual membership, 80 drinks would pay for a month of after-school care for one child, and 100 drinks would cover a week of summer programming.

For Yuma, the fundraiser landed in a season when child care and enrichment matter most. The club’s summer schedule is built around academic support, arts and education, health and wellness, STEM and robotics, and leadership-focused activities for K-12 youth. Its local materials say the branch is supported by a Yuma Advisory Council and led by Branch Director Rowena Regalado, giving the site a local structure that extends beyond one day of sales.

The Yuma club’s reopening in August 2022 also showed how much public and civic support it took to restore the program. The City of Yuma partnered with Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley to lease the John B. Smith and Edna P. Smith Campus, put in $100,000 in ARPA funding, and received a $14,252 gaming revenue donation from the Quechan Tribe. Mayor Douglas J. Nicholls called the return of Boys & Girls Club programming “a big win for the community,” while Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley president and CEO Marcia Mintz said the club was meant to help youth achieve academic success and build character and leadership.

Dutch Bros. has used similar point-of-sale fundraisers elsewhere, including Buck For Kids, its annual September giveback day for youth organizations. The company said its 2024 Buck For Kids effort raised more than $1.2 million for more than 245 local youth organizations, and its Yuma club has already seen the relationship deepen through a back-to-school shopping event that gave 15 members $250 each for school essentials. In Yuma, that kind of one-day cash infusion does not replace stable public or nonprofit funding, but it does help keep a visible part of the youth safety net moving through the summer.