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KOOL & THE GANG UNVEIL "BE KOOL" BILLBOARD IN JERSEY CITY, Encouraging Youth to BE GREAT

Jersey City - August 11, 2009 - As part of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America's new advocacy campaign - BE GREAT - Grammy Award winning R&B legends and Boys & Girls Club alum Kool & The Gang today unveiled a new billboard in Jersey City featuring a youthful photo and an motivational message - BE KOOL.  Kool & The Gang join some 25 prominent alumni in the new advocacy campaign to help increase public awareness and understanding about the key issues facing America's youth, and the positive impact of Clubs.

From academic failure and gang violence to poverty, drugs, and obesity, America's young people face a daunting array of problems - with serious consequences and fewer safety nets at home and in the community.  According to a 2007 BGCA alumni survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 57 percent of alumni reported, "The Club saved my life," while another 28 percent credited Boys & Girls Clubs with keeping them in school.

"When we were kids the Boys & Girls Club was 2 block from our apartment on Pacific Avenue.  There was no place in our neighborhood like the Boys & Girls Club.  It was a refuge and a place for us to rehearse and explore our talents in a safe and nurturing environment.  Truly we would not be who we are today without that early support from the Boys & Girls Club" said Ronald "Khalis" Bell.

Kool & The Gang's theme - BE KOOL - ties to the nickname for Robert Bell one of the group's founding members and the primary organizer of the group along with brother Khalis and boyhood friend Charles Smith, Dennis Thomas and George Brown.  The guys attended the Club regularly so when they needed a place to rehearse after forming their band, then called "The New Dimensions", they worked a deal with the Club director to mop the floors in exchange for the space.

Kool & The Gang went on to sell more than 70 million records worldwide and influence their music of three generations.  Thanks to songs like Celebration, Cherish, Jungle Boogie, Summer Madness and Open Sesame, they earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten R&B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albums.  Kool & The Gang has performed continuously for the past 35 years, longer than any R&B group in history. 

Other Club alumni joining Kool & The Gang in the BE GREAT adovacy campaign include: Academy Award winning actor and national spokesperson for BGCA - Denzel Washington, Muhammad Ali, Swin Cash, Gen. Wesley Clark, Bill Clinton, Bill Cobsy, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Michael Jordan, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Queen Latifah, Mario Lopez, John Mellencamp, Edward James Olmos, Shaquille O'Neal, Smokey Robinson, Jimmy Rollins, Martin Sheen, John Singleton, Ruben Studdard, Usher, Courtney Vance, Mark Wahlberg, and Kerry Washington.