2006 Events --> February 7, 2006
Youth center welcomed by county executive, celebrities and NFL
Detroit – Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano was joined by celebrities, business leaders, football players and grouping of excited children and their families in the Feb. 2 ground breaking for a new after-school center in Detroit.
The Youth Education Town center – or YET – is the first new Boys and Girls Clubs of America facility in Detroit in many years. The complex located at Joy and Southfield in the old Herman Gardens neighborhood will provide after-school and summer programs for latchkey and other youngsters from Detroit, Redford and Dearborn. The new building will sit on several hundred acres scheduled for broader development.
Officials celebrated the event at the Mae C. Jemison Academy, located on the same parcel where the YET building will be constructed.
The county executive said the YET center is crucial. "It'll open so many doors," he said.
The new center will include nearly 30,000 square feet of space and provide recreational, job training, help with schoolwork and a number of other activities that youngsters need to help shape their development, Ficano said.
Developing around the center is a vast retail/housing project called Gardenview Estates. The $230 million community will include shops, single-family housing, apartments and other development long absent from the area. The YET center is scheduled for opening in May 2007. Construction is slated to begin in March.
Joining the county executive were players and former NFL players helping support the YET project. Former Detroit Lions standout Robert Porcher moderated the welcoming.
The Detroit Super Bowl XL Host Committee and the NFL contributed $2 million towards the project. This is the NFL's fourteenth such nationwide contribution to the Boys and Girls Clubs, but its largest to date. Matching funds are still being raised to help complete the YET center.
Host Committee Chairman Roger Penske and Ford Motor Co. (Detroit Lions) CEO Bill Ford Jr. also attended the event, along with Wayne County Commissioner Alisha Bell, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Detroit Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. The NFL's Ralph Wilson, a county resident and owner of the Buffalo Bills, also joined the commemoration.
Directors and staff of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America were on hand to thank those donors and supporters in attendance.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America had its beginnings in 1860. The youth organization's founders wanted to limit boys from roaming the streets and provide a positive alternative. The group's name was changed in 1990, to reflect outreach to young girls.
Ficano seeks support of his ad campaign defending automakers
Today, Executive Robert Ficano in partnership with Detroit Regional Chamber, has launched a new website: americanautoindustryrocks.com
to promote support for U.S. automakers.
Detroit – Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano was joined by celebrities, business leaders, football players and grouping of excited children and their families in the Feb. 2 ground breaking for a new after-school center in Detroit. 
The new center will include nearly 30,000 square feet of space and provide recreational, job training, help with schoolwork and a number of other activities that youngsters need to help shape their development, Ficano said. 
Host Committee Chairman Roger Penske and Ford Motor Co. (Detroit Lions) CEO Bill Ford Jr. also attended the event, along with Wayne County Commissioner Alisha Bell, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Detroit Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. The NFL's Ralph Wilson, a county resident and owner of the Buffalo Bills, also joined the commemoration. 
On Wednesday, December 3, more than 70 invited guests enjoyed a fabulous evening on the 32nd floor of the historic Guardian Building.
Today, Executive Robert Ficano in partnership with Detroit Regional Chamber, has launched a new website:
The Wayne County Department of Health and Human Services will present its new Wayne Babies…
