The money will go to the Michael Phelps Foundation to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs.

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About 60 percent of Boys and Girls Clubs participants qualify for free or reduced-priced school lunches, Dominic said.

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The turbulent economy has posed a challenge for the Boys and Girls Clubs, whose operations are largely funded by donations.

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Under the plan, each of the nation's 2, 300 Boys and Girls Clubs would get an average of 10 computers, said Mark Rooney, Biden's deputy press secretary.

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The Boys and Girls Clubs of America also has seen anecdotal evidence of a surge of interest for the summer, said Kirk Dominic, executive vice president of club services.

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Feeding those kids, however, has become a little easier: Through a partnership with Morgan Stanley, Boys and Girls Clubs will provide more than 1 million free meals to children in its programs this summer.

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The Boys and Girls Clubs, which is also part of PowerUp, was chosen to get the computers because the clubs serve exactly the part of the population likely to be missing the technology revolution -- 3 million young people in underserved communities.

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And in Atlanta, 24 out of the 40 Darden restaurants in the city came together to help the local Boys and Girls Clubs improve graduation rates and college attendance through efforts like college fairs and help filling out student aid and college applications.

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But egalitarian did not mean equal: in mixed clubs, boys tended to charge about the place, keeping the girls out of the billiards room and hiding the table-tennis balls.

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