Wattles Club to be Renamed the Lionel Clegg Boys & Girls Club
Lionel Clegg, OnPoint Credit Union’s 2021 Educator of the Year to have the wattles club renamed. Photo Credit: Whitney Lyons.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metro Area and PCC Structurals, a division of Precision Castparts Corp., (“PCC”) announced the honoree for the Wattles Club located in the Lents neighborhood in SE Portland, which will be renamed in January 2024. PCC Structurals has made a transformative investment in the mission of Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metro Area through a 10-year partnership and is using this as an opportunity to honor a leader of color from the community to rename the Club facility. The Wattles Boys & Girls Club will now become the Lionel Clegg Boys & Girls Club – powered by PCC Structurals.
“After an extensive community-wide nomination process that included voting by youth Club members, Mr. Lionel Clegg was selected as the honoree for renaming the Wattles Club”, said Terry Johnson, CEO for Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metro. Mr. Clegg is a first-grade teacher at Woodlawn Elementary where he has taught for 24 years, which is the same school he attended as an elementary student growing up in NE Portland. He was named OnPoint Credit Union’s 2021 Educator of the Year and was featured on the Today show for his inspiring work as an educator that same year. The significance of honoring Mr. Clegg as an educator as the building honoree for this Club is that the Wattles Club was first an elementary school (Lents Elementary) prior to when it was converted to the first Boys Club in Portland back in 1954.
“We are extremely excited to honor Mr. Clegg by renaming the Wattles Club for him. He is
truly a dynamic community leader here in Portland and deserves to be celebrated because of
his commitment and dedication to educating students in the classroom. This is a significant
moment for us because the Wattles Club is our flagship location where we established our very first stand-alone club in 1954 by converting the old Lents Elementary school into a Club after we were initially founded in 1946. We’ve been serving the Portland Metro Area for 77 years, but directly serving the Lents neighborhood for 70 years at this particular location. We really appreciate PCC Structurals for partnering with us and creating the opportunity for us to take such a unique approach to renaming this particular Club”, said Johnson.