It is springtime, 2005.

The Boys & Girls Club of Wareham has just lost an executive director. Its finances are in the tank. The community has lost faith in the organization after what board members called "a series of disasters."

And Barbara Sullivan walks in the door.

"I knew nothing about the Club," Sullivan recalled during a recent interview at her Boys & Girls Club office, the walls of which are covered with photos of smiling children and inspirational artwork. She will retire on Jan. 31. "Hardly even knew it existed."

Sullivan was drumming up grant funding for an after-school program she hoped to run at the Brandy Hill affordable housing complex in conjunction with her church, Onset Foursquare. She was looking to see what resources were available in town.

A member of the Club's board serving as its interim director told Barbara about the Club's situation, and learned about the Rochester resident's experience in working with young people, teaching, creating reading and tutoring programs, and in other endeavors through her church.

"She said, 'We need you,'" Sullivan recalled. "Two interviews later, I hit the floor running as executive director."

With very little money to pay an executive director, Sullivan accepted the job at 20 hours per week.

"She hit the ground running and she worked seven days a week," said Marianne Murphy, a member of the board. "She had the keys. She would go in on Saturdays."

There was lots of work to be done. Cleaning, painting, organizing.

"It was a challenge," Sullivan said, "but I just never thought it wouldn't work."

But the Club needed money.

Sullivan attempted to get it chartered with the national Boys & Girls Club, which would open up doors for financial assistance, and help with programming and administrative tasks. But with clubs in Cape Cod and Plymouth, the organization said "no" to a club in Wareham.

So, Sullivan and a board member approached Jose Gonsalves, president of the Board of Directors of Boys & Girls Club of Greater New Bedford, hoping it would take the Wareham club on as a unit of its club.

The trio met at a New York Bagel near the New Bedford club.

"Later, he told me that the reason we met at New York Bagel was because he was appeasing us," Sullivan recalled with a chuckle.

The New Bedford club wasn't all that interested in taking on a struggling Wareham unit.

But Gonsalves was impressed.

"He said [we] were so passionate about the Club and the community, that he took it to the board," Sullivan explained.

The rest, as they say, is history. The board accepted the Wareham club, and paved the way for a renaissance.

"We were totally amazed when we got in there, how she held it together to that point," said Robert Mendes, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater New Bedford. "For anybody else, it would have probably been easier to say, 'Close the doors.' I think it was just a testament to her fortitude."

But the Wareham club wasn't quite over the hurdle. It took more than a year for the merger to be completed.

"We were running out of money," Sullivan said.

That's where the community came in.

A woman donated $25,000 in memory of her late husband, who had been involved with a Club elsewhere in Massachusetts.

Volunteers donated paint and painted the outside of the building.

Comcast hosted a Comcast Cares Day, and 262 people showed up and painted the inside of the Club, landscaped the outside, and completed other projects.

Padding for the inside walls to protect children who play basketball on the indoor courts was donated.

"I love the community," said Sullivan. "The people are so warm and wonderful, and work so hard to fill in the gaps for those who lack."

Sullivan recalled the Club's first Christmas under her direction. The Club could only afford to give the children a small box of candy from Billy Boy's Candy.

"We had no gifts for the kids," Sullivan said with tears in her eyes.

Then, Deneen Rose of the Onset Cape Verdean Festival Committee referred a Fall River probation officer to the Club. The officer arrived first with a truckload of toys, and then a truckload of coats.

"We continue to receive gifts sufficient for each child and younger siblings who do not attend the Club," said Sullivan.

And the support just hasn't waned.

"They came," Sullivan said of the community, "and it's been like that over and over."

Now, the Club is thriving.

National Boys & Girls Club programs such as Power Hour, provide Club members with help with homework. Partnerships with community organizations have gotten children out of the Club and on field trips to learn about the environment, gardening, rowing, and a whole host of other things.

And so Barbara Sullivan says it is time to hang up her hat. She'll retire on Jan. 31, just days after her 70th birthday.

She leaves the Club in the hands of the staff she trained, and members who may eventually fill her shoes.

Sullivan calls Zach Massa, a 13-year-old member of the Club, "a future Boys & Girls Club staffer."

"It's always fun to be here," Zach said. "The staff are always nice and they always like to joke around."

But Sullivan will be missed.

"She's nice, and I'm sad that she's leaving," 9-year-old Club member Samantha Hunt said. Samantha has been attending the Club for two years.

"You have a lot of activities," she noted. "It's a nice place. I have to say, it's pretty awesome."

Micajah Gore, 11, says she enjoys seeing her friends and playing games at the Club.

"I like how, upstairs, when sometimes your homework is hard, you get help," Micajah noted, adding of Sullivan: "I think she's really nice and I thank her because she let me and my brother come."

Sullivan is looking forward to spending time with her seven granddaughters and three great-grandchildren. And she'll remain a familiar face around the Wareham community.

She plans to do more work with the children's ministry at the Onset Foursquare Church. She'll still be very involved with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Celebration at the Club, and if the new executive director would like her to, she'll even still chaperone the dances.

Sullivan says her biggest accomplishment is "just restoring the Club to what it used to be, and maybe more."

Board members would say "more!"

"There would be no Club today if it wasn't for Barbara Sullivan," said Murphy. "It was just a series of disasters, and then along came Barbara. She saved the Titanic."

A new executive director has not yet been named.

To the community, Sullivan says: "Thank you, thank you, thank you. To the parents, the kids."

"It sounds trite to say my life has been enriched by the experience here, but it's true," she added. "The kids just do that to you. They show you yourself."