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Wu Family Foundation gives $1 million for Boys & Girls Clubs expansion

WGCU | By Dayna Harpster
Published March 24, 2025 at 8:55 AM EDT
Dayna Harpster
Maylene and Wen Wu

Wen Wu came to this country from Taiwan to go to college. He graduated as an engineer but soon after founded House of Wu, a Fort Myers-based formalwear designer and seller with more than 1,200 retailers worldwide.

A $1 million pledge from the Maylene and Wen Wu Family Foundation is kickstarting a capital campaign for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Lee County.

Boys & Girls Clubs bought the former Fort Myers Event Center nearly two years ago as a flagship club for Southwest Florida. Plans for the Park Meadows Center include a teen center, culinary center, playground, game room, academic center, health and wellness center, sports field and more. The gift from the Wu Family Foundation will help make all that possible.

As president of the local board for several years, Maylene Wu explains her devotion to the Boys & Girls Clubs.

"We are really changing the future, the trajectory of their lives, and therefore changing the community. We have to make sure the kids in this community grow up healthy, productive, engaged citizens.

"It's not a babysitting service. We're so much more. We expose them to all different ... career opportunities. And they need that exposure."

Wu sees the club as a benefit to the entire community.

"I also see Boys & Girls Club as a connector, not just a youth service organization, but a connector in the community," she said. "Because, listen, we have the kids in our clubs all the other nonprofits can come in to our organization to provide service to them."

The Wus are anxious to give back to the area in which they have been so successful.

"We'd like to feed back to the community," said Wen Wu. "To help out the community, because we prosper from here and we want to stay here."

Additional recent donations for the Park Meadows Center, 1900 Park Meadows Drive in Fort Myers, include:

  • Suncoast Credit Union Foundation, $300,000 for the teen center
  • NBC Universal Foundation: $125,000 for the innovation lab
  • Tomahawk Construction: $125,000 for the culinary center
  • GL Homes: $125,000 for the youth playground through Passion for Playgrounds initiative
  • Catalyst Asset Management: $100,000 for the game room
  • Lennar Homes: $100,000 for Park Meadows capital campaign
  • Anonymous Corporate Donor: $75,000 for Park Meadows capital campaign

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Dayna Harpster
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