The Boys and Girls Club charity scam really upsets me. I grew up in The (then just) Boys Club when I was a kid, and it did some really great things for me. So, I wasn’t happy to see that the scam, in which people pretend to raise money for the much needed organization has made its way up to Door County (story HERE).

It was upsetting but not surprising. This is because these crooks have been doing this in Green Bay for years. I’ve dealt with it first hand.

Between elections, you’ll catch me doing all kinds of jobs. That’s the life of a veteran, when transition doesn’t go well. Some of those jobs have been in security here in Northeast Wisconsin.

I’ll get a call from a client, and I’ll find some guy trying to sell band candy with a laminated card saying “Boys and Girls Club”. Sometimes it even has cities that aren’t even in Wisconsin like Chicago. Anyway, this guy is usually as old as I am, many years removed from adolescence, and they’ll scurry away when you ask them for a charity contact. One month later, it will be somebody different. And the bad part is because they’ve actually got a product that has been marked up in the name of charity, they’ll scam some dollars away from kind individuals.

The answer here is education and collaboration with law enforcement, which sounds exactly like what Door County is doing. But it also takes vigilance. You have to make noise about these scammers or they’ll never leave.

And dollars that could be used to help actual Boys and Girls Club services which improves the lives of young people every year will go to waste.