"This is a cool place:" Brewers 'pitch' in to renovate Boys & Girls Club game room



Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee



MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee Brewers are helping local kids feel like a pro. The club pitched in to renovate the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee’s Pieper-Hillside Club.

Thanks to a $75,000 grant from Boys & Girls Clubs of America and MLB, and in partnership with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Pieper-Hillside Club undertook a much needed makeover.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee’s Pieper-Hillside Club



Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee’s Pieper-Hillside Club



Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee’s Pieper-Hillside Club



"We've got some things even the Brewers Club House doesn't have," said Rick Schlesinger, Brewers.

The Pieper-Hillside Club, which has over 1,500 members and serves nearly 200 youth daily, had its games room recently renovated to look and feel like a real MLB clubhouse after engaging members in focus groups to identify their needs.

The games rooms at Clubs throughout Milwaukee serve as a focal point of after-school activity for youth of all ages.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee’s Pieper-Hillside Club



"You gotta have a place to blow off steam a place, to recharge," said Vincent Lyles.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee’s Pieper-Hillside Club



Grant funding allowed the club to update lighting, flooring and paint in addition to purchasing new furniture, visual and electronic gaming equipment for youth and game tables including pool and foosball.

"This is a cool place. A replica of the locker room the big boys play in," said Lyles.

The Milwaukee Brewers collaborated with BGCGM to help make the games room layout feel like a real MLB clubhouse, and donated items such as team apparel and memorabilia, authentic lockers and other imaging for the space.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee’s Pieper-Hillside Club