The only remaining children's program for poor families in the Florida Keys is in financial trouble and asking for the public's help.

The Boys Girls Clubs of the Keys Area Bayview Park, which cares for 120 children from low-income families, is asking community members for a one-time donation of $20.

"The idea is to raise $10,000 by convincing at least 500 Keys residents to donate $20 each," Executive Director Dan Dombroski said, emphasizing that people can give more. "Otherwise we'll have to raise our rates, which we haven't done for eight years."

The typical child in the program has a single working parent or is from a household where both parents work to make ends meet, Dombroski said. During the school year, parents pay $45 weekly for the first child and half that for each additional child. For the summer program, which lasts all day, parents pay $85 for the first child and half that for each subsequent child.

"These parents can't afford a rise in their monthly payment to us," Dombroski said. "There's no other place for them to send their kids while they're at work. Parents can barely pay what they pay now."

Their contribution doesn't even cover the true cost of each child -- $140 a week, Dombroski said -- who would otherwise be unsupervised after school until parents got home from work.

In summer, the club feeds children breakfast and lunch; takes trips, such as to Florida Marlins games; and sponsors park games, sports and other activities as well as learning activities.

The nonprofit has received less funding in the poor economy and incurred unexpected moving costs.

"We started with $60,000 less than we had last year," Dombroski said of the 2009-2010 fiscal year budget. "We lost our space with little notice and our move was expensive and unanticipated."

Wesley House Family Services used to pay club fees for kids up to 12 years old, but a nonprofit that helped fund the Wesley House contribution stopped contributing, Dombroski said.

Then the school district, seeking space for the Montessori Elementary Charter School of Key West, forced the nonprofit to move in June, while it was watching more than 100 kids during its summer program. The nonprofit moved to Glynn Archer Elementary School.

"The community donated $390,000 to primary election candidates," said Dombroski, himself a candidate for the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District board. "Over the past 12 years, thousands of kids in this community have been helped by this club. Now we need the community's help."

jguerra@keysnews.com