Over the years, BGCSC has seen numerous members impact their communities as “changemakers” – two individuals come immediately to mind that fit this description.

As a young child Robert Cannon began attending the Boys & Girls Club in 1991, attending weekly throughout his childhood. As a teen he began giving back to his community, serving over 5000 hours of community service at the Ballard Club and began working as their Assistant Athletic Director while still in high school. He went on to be chosen as the Youth of the Year for his Boys & Girls Club and won the honor to represent his organization at the State-wide Youth of the Year competition. As a teen and peer role model, Robert Cannon had already begun to demonstrate the qualities of a “changemaker”. In 2010 he became the full-time Athletic Director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County’s Mukilteo Unit. Using his passion for youth and community Robert mentored countless youth, passing on what he had learned from his early mentors, as he and his Club provided a safe-haven and an array of out-of-school enrichment programming and sports leagues for the youth of Mukilteo. Robert’s passion and success advanced him to become the Unit Director at the new Granite Falls Boys & Girls Club in 2013. There he spent the next seven years serving what was at the time a vastly under-served community by developing a comprehensive array of core program that served over 10,000 members during his leadership. This included BGCSC’s first-ever Robotics team which went compete successfully in the LEGO FIRST Robotics league. Robert is now an integral part of the BGCSC Resource Development Team, mentoring and teaching all of our 26 Unit Directors, and guiding their success in their Communities.

Shortly after taking the reins of the Granite Falls Club, Robert met a young Club Member, a 6th grader named Brayden Smith. Over the next 6 years, Brayden attended the Club daily, served as a Stem peer mentor, help lead the Torch Club program (a teen community service initiative) and eventually secured his first job as a junior staff member at the Club. After serving in Student Government, Future Business Leaders of America and being the student representative on the Granite Falls School District Board of Directors, Brayden graduated high school in 2020 and completed college. Brayden, just may have racked up more community service hours than Robert, and then he too, went on to not only win the Youth of the Year Award for Granite Falls Boys & Girls Club, but then advanced and became the Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County Youth of the Year winner in 2020. Robert said that Brady’s Speech at the WA State Youth of the Year Dinner was one of the proudest moments in his career. In 2024, Brayden returned and enthusiastically took the position as a Unit Director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County, Sultan Unit. Brayden has come full-circle and now provides his youth with the same care, support and mentoring that helped make him the person he is today. Robert Cannon and Brayden Smith are outstanding examples of Changemakers here in the Puget Sound Region. Throughout their experiences as school-aged youth and as Boys & Girls Club Professionals, they have both influenced the lives of so many young people, creating strong, healthy communities wherever they have been. With their continued dedication and passion for serving others, their work is just getting started. For 78 years, Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County has grown right along-side our rapidly expanding communities, with Changemakers like Robert and Brayden leading the way.