March 25, 2009
NEW CLUBHOUSE TO BE BUILT
Providence, RI – After 84 years of continual service to children and youth in the Olneyville and Silver Lake neighborhoods 80% of the existing Olneyville Boys & Girls Club facility will come down thanks to a grant from the Champlin Foundation.
According to Area Director Kris Leveillee, “Existing fire code and ADA violations would have forced us to close the facility leaving Olneyville with another vacant, abandoned building.” Instead, the Boys & Girls Clubs have chosen to buy the foreclosed abandoned property contingent to theirs, knock them down and build a new facility on the expanded property.
Over the next 18 months the Providence Club is planning to raise $4.5 million to build the city’s first youth field house. The proposed facility will include an indoor soccer field, a youth employment and training center, a digital arts training center, a business & administration center, and, if funds can be found, a combination Boys & Girls Clubs Museum & Alumni Hall of Fame.
Chairing the effort to design and build the new facility is Committee Chairman John Sinnott of Gilbane. Joining Sinnott on the volunteer committee is Anne Miranda, Dimeo Construction; Al Durand, IBEW; Ray DeCesare (ret.), Robinson Green Beretta; Jim Perrone, civil engineer; Dan Bianco, Laborer’s International of North America; Mike Owen, Celtic Management; and Lee Esckilsen, CFE, Johnson & Wales University.
The Boys & Girls Clubs projects it will take 36 months to raise the funds and build the new facility on the Atwood Street site. During that time the Club will provide services to children in the area from its recently opened Hartford Park site directly across from the Perry Middle School on Laurel Hill Avenue.
Board President Robert Brooks, an alumnus of the Olneyville building, said, “While development of a new facility is always exciting, we need to focus just as much on serving kids. With this unique feature we expect to draw in 1500-2000 new members.”