Omega Boys Club celebrates 30 years of helping young people

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Omega Boys Club has been helping young people for 30 years.

Former ABC7 news reporter Steve Davis was one of the first media people to profile the Omega Boys Club. "Back then it was a small organization with big ideas," says Joe Marshall, one of the the founders. Thirty boys showed up at the first meeting in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood. At the second meeting, girls started attending. Today, 30 years later the ideas are still big and the numbers of young people whose lives have changed is even bigger. The name has also changed to "Alive and Free."

In their press release the organization says "They have kept young people unharmed by violence and free from incarceration." One of those who benefited was Shamman Walton, the current President of the San Francisco Board of Education. "Without the organization I may not be a free man and may not be alive," said Walton.

In addition to serving thousands of youth annually, the organization has sent 225 youth to college and awarded $7 million in scholarships. A celebration was planned at the Bentley Reserve in San Francisco for Thursday evening.