Sue Bloom retires after championing children at Boys & Girls Club

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Sue Bloom often thinks back to a young woman she met a decade ago while kicking off a fundraising event for the Boys & Girls Club in Salem.

The woman told Bloom she lived in a friend’s basement as a teenager after losing her job, struggling with what to do next while caring for her young son.

Enrolling her son in the Boys & Girls Club on Northeast Summer Street changed her life.

“I knew that every day he was going to safely arrive, he’d get fed a hot meal, he’d get his homework done,” Bloom recalled the woman telling her. 

Having a safe place to send her son let her find work, finish school and get back on her feet. When she met Bloom, her son was about to graduate high school.

For Bloom, it’s the perfect illustration of why her organization’s work matters.

Bloom retires Friday after serving as executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Salem Marion & Polk Counties since 2016, overseeing a budget of about $5 million a year. Before that,  she worked for about six years as the organization’s chief operations officer.

The Boys & Girls Club operates eight Salem-area branches with after school programs for kids from first grade through high school graduation at a cost of $5 to $25 per school year, making it by far the more affordable child care option for local families.

Kids can do homework and get a snack at the club, play basketball, make art or experiment in the Mad Scientist lab. Clubs also open for summer camp and on days school isn’t in session so kids have a safe place to go.

Bloom guided the organization through a period of significant growth, including adding workforce programs for teens and the opening of the new Epping Homestead Branch of the club on Northeast Lancaster Drive in 2022. 

At the opening, Bloom said the 3,700 kids who lived within a mile of the new branch badly needed space to play and learn.

“There’s no safe place to run around and be a kid,” she said.

The new facility allowed the club to serve hundreds more children in a low-income neighborhood with few parks or other public infrastructure for families.

“You need more than a director who’s all about numbers or raising money,” said Justin Martin, a lobbyist in Salem and longtime Boys & Girls Club board member who served as chair during Bloom’s early years. “You need somebody who has the heartbeat of the community and Sue really embodied that.”

Bloom grew up in Tigard and began her career working for State Farm in regional offices. Her husband was with the company too. They moved to Salem 35 years ago when their children were young after a stint in California.

When State Farm moved to close its Salem office on Portland Road, the couple was offered new jobs in Lacey, Washington. With a son about to finish high school, they weren’t interested in moving. Bloom transitioned to nonprofit work at United Way, where she’d previously volunteered.

She knew how to manage a budget and lead projects, and got to know Salem’s nonprofit world better through that work. Bloom said close collaboration to find win-wins is one of the things that makes Salem special.

“There is a true interest in leaning into working together to support each other,” she said. “That’s an incredible gift to this community.”

At United Way, Bloom helped fundraise for the Boys & Girls Club and got more familiar with their work in the community. When the operations job opened up, she decided to apply.

It was a “big learning curve,” Bloom said.

The club had recently launched a workforce development program for older students. The aim was to give students exposure to different careers through field trips and hands-on experience “to say, ‘That was great’ or ‘I never want to try that job again,’” Bloom said.

Early on, she worked to create a safe place for teens to try new things and feel comfortable failing.

She worked with leaders at Chemeketa Community College to open a “connection center” where middle school students could visit campus, have a college mentor and make a news broadcast with CCTV and hold a graduation ceremony. 

The program ran for about three years, and Bloom remembers hearing students say, “I never thought I’d be on a college campus.”
“Those are the kind of things that just make me really happy,” she said.

Holly Nelson, Chemeketa’s chief workforce innovation and community success officer credited Bloom with helping the college secure a nearly $3 million state grant in 2023 to create career readiness programs through local community organizations.

“She completely focuses on just crafting opportunities for all the kids of different ages,” Nelson said.

Over the years, Nelson said Bloom has often been someone to bounce ideas off of and talk about needs for young people in Salem.

Other community leaders described her as a collaborator who could bring people together for big projects while keeping a focus on what individual kids need.

“What really impresses me about her is her grace, her elegance,” said Salam Noor, a former Salem-Keizer School District executive who now works on local education and philanthropy projects. “I’ve never heard Sue say a negative thing about anything or anyone no matter how difficult situations get.”

Martin said Bloom did the typical work of an executive director, managing budget and high-level conversations, but also rolled up her sleeves to do activities with kids in the club or stuff backpacks for a back-to-school drive.

“She was very, very caring and always willing to be there,” he said.

Bloom said she’s looking forward to spending more time with her 2-year-old granddaughter, camping and gardening. Her home in south Salem has a large yard where she grows flowers and vegetables.

‘It’s just such a gift to be able to go outside and pick what you want and make a meal with it,” she said.

Bloom won’t be leaving community work in Salem entirely.

She collaborated closely with the Epping Family Foundation to open the club branch on the family’s original Salem homestead. Starting in May, she’ll begin working with the foundation on a related project taking shape on the unused portion of that lot — a resource hub for families in the North Lancaster area.

The aim is to help parents find things like job training or help with housing, as well as provide a safe place for the community to gather. They expect to break ground in June.

“I couldn’t go cold turkey,” Bloom said. “I still get to be really engaged in the community, which I’m really excited about.”

Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

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