FRANKLIN TWP — For 60 years, the Prospect Boys and Girls Club has given children the chance to play.

The club offers football, baseball, soccer, softball and cheerleading to children between ages 4 and 19.

Eric Hilliard, president, said that in Butler County just about every other club or athletic group focuses only on one sport.

“It’s all individual sports. Whereas, at the boys and girls club, it’s all under one roof,” Hilliard said.

The club was founded in 1953 by James Beatty.

“There was nothing (like this) for the youth in the area,” Hilliard said.

At the time, the club only offered baseball and football. It has grown since then.

The club’s facility, which has 10 athletic fields, is located on 67 acres on Country Club Road in Franklin Township.

It bought the property, which was 62 acres at the time, for $32,000 in 1976, and the first baseball game was played there in 1977.

Shortly after that, the softball program got started. In the early 1980s, soccer was added.

Before it got the property, teams for the club played at Prospect Elementary School. Teams with older children played at the Butler County Fairgrounds, where Hilliard said the children would have to clean up leftovers from cows before playing, earning it the nickname “the cow pasture.”

“We were starting to outgrow the facility we had,” Hilliard said.

Although the club primarily pulls participants from the Prospect area, Hilliard said anyone can join.

Currently, about 450 children participate in club sports annually. This is a bit of a decline since 2002 and 2003, which Hilliard said were the year’s with the largest participation.

“We have seen a decrease over the course (since 2003),” Hilliard said.

At one time, he noted that the club had 12 baseball teams. Now it has three, he said.

The club’s main fundraisers are its annual turkey shoot in the spring and fall, and its comedy night. Additionally, each individual sport does its own fundraising, and the club keeps a portion of that money.

The club, which is a 501c3 nonprofit, also takes donations and seeks sponsorships from businesses.

It has a few projects coming up. It recently got approval to install full-service restrooms. Currently, portable toilets are used. A new picnic pavilion will be going up eventually. Additionally, the club will replace its current main building soon.

It even offers financial aid “scholarships” to children who come from families with less means to participate.

The club is run by 13 board members, and the maintenance is done by volunteers. Hilliard praised the board members, saying they look after the interests of all of the kids who play club sports.

“They look after the whole organization,” Hilliard said.

Hilliard started playing sports at the club in 1976. He became involved in the leadership in 1995 and has been president since 2009.

He said children who participate in sports can learn a lot of life lessons.

“It teaches discipline. It teaches self-control. It teaches problem solving. It teaches teamwork. There are no sports anymore that actually are individual sports,” Hilliard said.

Sports also teach self-esteem, as well as the fact that you cannot always win.

“When you’re down, you have to get back up,” Hilliard said.

For more information, visit www.prospectboysandgirlsclub.org.