Napa Valley Vintners Grants $740K to American Canyon Youth Groups

Napa Valley Vintners has awarded $740,000 in grants to two youth-serving organizations in American Canyon — $660,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Napa Valley and $80,000 to the Napa River Ecology Center — as part of $1.2 million in total fall grants supporting after-school and summer programs for approximately 8,500 Napa County students, according to a report by Brett Marsh in the Napa Valley Register.

Organization leaders said the grants arrive as local youth and families navigate rising living costs and increased screen time.

$660,000 for Boys & Girls Clubs of Napa Valley

The $660,000 grant to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Napa Valley will be distributed proportionately between its American Canyon and Napa clubhouses. Since 1997, Napa Valley Vintners has contributed $9.8 million to the two clubhouses.

Jaime Gallegos, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Napa Valley, said the funding supports expanded transitional kindergarten and kindergarten services, including a dedicated full-time kindergarten coordinator, specialized youth programming, and a social-emotional curriculum called Positive Action adopted after a club survey identified peer-to-peer relationships as a key concern.

Gallegos noted that family demand for financial assistance has climbed alongside household living expenses, with the share of Boys & Girls Clubs participants receiving fee assistance rising from 52% in 2023-24 to 72% this year.

$80,000 for the Napa River Ecology Center in American Canyon

The $80,000 grant to the Napa River Ecology Center — operated by the American Canyon Community & Parks Foundation at a former city-run corporation yard being transformed into a nature-based education hub — brings the Vintners' total support for the ecology center to $210,000 since 2019.

Janelle Sellick, executive director of the American Canyon Community & Parks Foundation, said the funding helps the ecology center serve more than 1,000 summer and after-school students across two core programs:

• Nature Quest: A summer and after-school program serving transitional kindergarten through fifth-grade students that teaches scientific observation and foundational ecological and biological concepts.
• Teen WILD (Wilderness Inspired Leadership & Development): A year-round conservation and leadership program for teens — including the Teen WILD 2026 cohort — featuring an expanded nature-based wellness initiative created with student input to help participants disconnect from electronic devices and spend time outdoors at sites such as American Canyon Wetlands Edge Park.