The Renton/Skyway Boys and Girls Club in Skyway has won a prestigious national award for its MicroSociety program called Renway.

Club members run a place called Renway, a combination of Renton and Skyway. They hold the power and make the decisions about how to run Renway society, including its business community and government, including a mayor.

The club’s innovative program won Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s top honor of “Best Overall Program Award” from a field of more than 4,000 clubs nationwide.

The award was presented earlier this month in New York City at the national convention.

Dorina Calderon-McHenry, the club’s interim director, describes the award as like winning the Oscar for the best motion picture of the year. The Renton/Skyway club is the only one in the nation to run a MicroSociety program.

The president of the Philadelphia-based MicroSociety program attended the awards ceremony.

“It was a surreal, but it was thrilling,” said Calderon-McHenry of the awards ceremony. The award, she said, is “good testament to the work the club has done with the MicroSociety here.”

Meg Pitman, the Skyway club’s director who is taking a high-level job with the Boys & Girls Clubs of King County, attended with Calerson-McHenry. Calderon-McHenry, who has been the club’s program administrator, is her replacement.

The MicroSociety idea was initially presented to the club by Bill Taylor, president of the Renton Chamber of Commerce, and the Renton-based Burst for Prosperity, she said. Burst’s mission is to help individuals reach financial independence.

Anywhere from 50 to 55 youth participate each day in the club activities. Anyone who comes to the club also becomes involved in Renway, she said.

“The Microsociety has given them a sense of belonging,” Calderon-McHenry said of the youth. The kids at the club, she said, are the ones “who need us the most.”

Each Microsociety participant has a job. “The kids know that other kids depend on them to make this work,” she said.

Renway may seem like play, but is real-life playing, she said. The youth take Microsociety “very seriously.”