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Community rallies against closing of Boys and Girls Club

Citywatch

By MATTHEW JERZYK | February 21, 2007

In October 2004, 17-year-old William Lamont Thomas, surrounded by elected officials, and community and business leaders, highlighted the launching of a GTECH-sponsored computer lab at the South Side Boys & Girls Club.

Yet by July 2006, with no prior warning, the club’s doors were closed. Citing water damage, the club’s board gave no indication to parents like Wrenele Theme, Thomas’s mother, that it would stay closed longer than, at most, a few weeks.

Months later, with the new computers missing and the Boys & Girls Club still closed, Theme received terrible news: her son had been seriously assaulted at the Providence Place Mall, as a result of a long-time East Side-South Side rivalry. Wounded, Thomas told his mom, “You know I wouldn’t have been hanging out at the Mall if the club were still open.”

Theme shared this story this during a community march and rally this past Saturday afternoon against the club’s closing. More than 75 participants, including Providence Mayor David Cicilline, Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts, Council President Peter Mancini, and Councilman Luis Aponte, who represents the affected neighborhood, took part.

Theme faults the club’s board for the closing and for what she calls a lack of communication.

Cicilline sounded a similar theme. He announced at the rally that he recently met with board president Robert Brooks, a partner in the law firm of Adler Pollock & Sheehan, and highlighted the importance of the board in partnering with the community to chart the club’s future. Cicilline also said the City will move many of the club’s programs to nearby schools and recreation centers as a short-term solution.

In response to concerns raised by RI ACORN, Brooks wrote that it will cost $600,000 to repair and renovate the club. The board, however, has denied community members, who are willing to raise money and to offer construction services, access to the club and to its books. This could be because of a desire by the board to sell the club property, to the tune of $4 million, and relocate the club to the nearby Meeting Street School campus (whose CEO, John Kelly, sat on the club board until last week).

One elected official made the salient point that the club will face difficulty in raising money from, and offering services to, a community that it has largely enraged — as with the problems faced by the Providence Public Library.

Enraged was certainly the theme of the day at this sunny Saturday afternoon rally. Emotional stories from parents and children accompanied chants of “Save Our Club” and “Open the Doors, Open the Books, Open the Board.”

Dewayne “Boo” Hackney, a leader of Save Our Club Kids (SOCK), told the crowd how he was born across the street from the club and could name the families living in every nearby house. “I will die for this club,” Hackney bellowed. “That’s how important this club is to me and to our community.” Hackney asserted that the community’s efforts to re-open the club will only grow stronger in the next few weeks.

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Topics: This Just In , Politics, Local Politics, John Kelly, More

Comments

Community rallies against closing of Boys and Girls Club

my name is tracy harris and i now reside in raleigh n.c. when i pulled up providence boys clubs on my computer i was shocked at what i read, for as long as i can remember the club has been there for me. my first big wheel race, my first time swimming,my first time shooting pool,pingpong, and a whole bunch of other activities were provided for me there. my first time feeling like i was apart of a family was when i made the south side sixers basketball team. being a product of a one parent home the club was the only family i knew.not only were the staff there careing and concerned about our wellbeing, but they were the only father and mother figures that some of us knew expecially me. not to mention that as i grew in age the club still provided life skills that i needed to continue my jorney to adulthood, for example rosavelt benton gave me my first lifeguard job. then after he left beatrice gomes gave me my first gameroom director job. so as you can see the club has been there for me well over half my life, and without it only god knows where i would have ended up. my heart and sole are in that club, i mean i cant even imagin south side without the boys and girls club, i cant imagin other little boys and girls not getting the chance to experance the fun,love, excitement, bonding, molding, making, careing, sharing,respect, the brotherhood, and just the sheer feeling of belonging that the club brings. theres no amount of money that could replace the experience that kids would get from attending the boys and girls club. so i can diffinetly feel mr hackney when he said he would die for the club, you see because its easy to give your life for something that gave life so freely to you. i truly feel that it would be an atrocity if you city officals and communnity leaders could not come up with something to save a place that has played a part in saving so many lives.the south side boys and girls club is diffently worth saving and restoring, to even think otherwise should be criminal. i pray that my pertition hasent fallen on deaf ears and that you people who hold the strings would consider the hundreds or thousands of people who hold soul ties to this faculity so near to there hearts. the club is not just a building, its a part of life itself for us. thank you, sincerly tracy harris

By tracy harris on 01/09/2008 at 6:54:24

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