Honorary Chair
Luke Matteson, a board member for nearly 30 years, has been named
Honorary Chair of Boys & Girls Clubs of Carlsbad’s 34th Annual “Fly
Me To the Moon” Gala.
A graduate of El Camino High School, Luke was a
member of the Oceanside Boys Club during his elementary school years. “The Club
did a lot for me,” said Luke. “It provided many activities and outlets to keep me
engaged and expand my horizons. It taught me that I could do anything I wanted
and empowered me to be successful. It also kept me out of trouble – or at least
more trouble than I would have gotten into without it,” he jokes.
Now Senior Vice President at First Citizens Bank in
Carlsbad, where he manages commercial banking for corporate entities throughout
San Diego County, Luke joined the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carlsbad Board in
1986. At the time, he worked for La Jolla Bank and Trust, which had facilities
in Carlsbad. “Greg Nelson, who banked with us and was on the Club Board,
recommended that I come to a meeting. I went and I never left.”
For Luke, the motivation to be an active board
member for nearly 30 years has always been the same – the kids. He has served
as Board President, and led capital campaigns to renovate the Village Clubhouse
in the late 1990s, and raise nearly $8 million to build the state-of-the-art
Bressi Ranch Clubhouse, which opened in 2013. “Probably my proudest moment was
when a young man approached me at a function, and told me what the Club meant
to him, and that it inspired him to be a teacher.”
“We are so pleased to honor Luke,
who has given so much of himself to the Boys & Girls Club,” said Gala
Co-Chairs Barbi Nelson and Viola Wheelihan. “This recognition has been a long
time in the making, and is way overdue!”
Luke and
his beautiful wife, Terri, live in Vista, and have three grown daughters (and
several cats). One of their daughters, Paige, has worked at the Club for
several years. “I get to hear first
hand the impact the Club has on the kids,” says Luke. “We are truly making a
difference in many young lives.”