Ex-Lakota coach to help lead new Boys & Girls Club in West Chester

The two top executives of West Chester and Liberty townships’ new Boys & Girls Club have been chosen, and they include a former Lakota Schools teacher and coach

Retired Lakota teacher and sports coach John Lindeman will be the chief operating officer of the under-construction youth club in Butler County’s Olde West Chester community.

Lindeman will handle daily operations and report to the Boys & Girls Club’s new Chief Executive Officer Bridget Graber, currently program director and staff advisor for the University of Cincinnati Real Estate Center.

Until 2012 Graber was project manager for PROKIDS in Cincinnati.

“This is a huge step for us and we couldn’t be more thrilled with our selections,” said Patti Alderson, board member of the Ohio Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs and chairwoman of the new club’s building campaign.

Lindeman, who retired from Lakota Schools in 2015, started as a teacher in the district in 1992 and his long and varied career included coaching boys and girls sports and leading numerous student clubs and activities.

Earlier this month, Alderson revealed to the Journal-News the club’s scheduled opening, which had been projected for December or January, is now targeted for November.

The $9 million fund-raising goal for the two-story, 30,000 square-foot center is now taking shape at the site of the former Lakota Union School in Olde West Chester at 8735 Cincinnati Dayton Road.

The club will be the largest structure in the resurgence of the historical Olde West Chester business district along Cincinnati-Dayton Road between Interstate 75 and West Chester Road.

The current Boys & Girls Club on West Chester’s Smith Road serves about 300 families, but Alderson said she and other officials are confident many more will take advantage of the club’s many sports, educational, social and other programs.

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