Boys & Girls Club recognizes top donors

Published: Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Courtesy photo Members of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua unveil their new board

Courtesy photo Gov. John Lynch chats with members of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua.

Courtesy photo Members of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua unveil their new board

NASHUA – The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua recognized capital campaign donors whose generosity spans four decades at an event attended by more than 100 donors.

Norm Bouthilette, the CEO, and Andy Dillman, president of the board, thanked the guests for their generosity to the 2009 campaign, which raised $4.2 million. Dillman said, “In the worst recession in decades, you pulled through for the kids.”

Members Sylvia Gitonga and Gregory Gott led the Pledge of Allegiance and then sat next to Gov. John Lynch. Lynch spoke to the audience and said that the children who attend the Boys & Girls Club, “come to develop relationships and love for other boys and girls. With this facility, you have given them a great gift and so, on behalf of Sylvia and Greg and all the kids, thank you!”

Thomas Monahan, chairman of the Boys & Girls Club Foundation, recognized guests who included the club in a bequest and are members of the Heritage Club. Monahan and staff member Leslie Sanderson presented Heritage Club plaques to Martin Mehron (represented by Kathy Kayros), Beulah White (represented by Garry Clarke-Pounder), Diane Norris and Bridget Cooley to welcome them as most recent Heritage Club members.

Bouthilette cited the inspirational donors whose names are at the top of the 2009 Campaign Donor Board: Anonymous; Mr. and Mrs. James B. Conway; Jane and William Conway; Telemachus and Irene Demoulas Family Foundation; U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg via the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; the Kresge Foundation; the Moheban Family; the city of Nashua through a Community Development Block Grant; the Fred B. Roedel Family; Mr. and Mrs. Richard Stahl; and Beulah F. White.

At the conclusion, members Sylvia Gitonga and Greg Gott unveiled a donor board recognizing the 420 donors to the 2009 campaign. The board will be placed in the Teen Center. Another unique donor board lists all donors for the campaigns of 1974, 1985, 1997 and 2009, and captures a photo history of the club’s facilities from its beginnings in a rented store front on Main Street to the state-of-the-art youth center it is today. This larger board is permanently displayed in the lobby of the Boys & Girls Club.

The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua annually serves 4,000 boys and girls, ages 5-18, in Nashua, Merrimack, Litchfield and reaches another 10,000 youngsters in the community with a variety of after school programs and activities to build attitudes, skills, values and behaviors that enable youth to succeed in adulthood.

The club is staffed with professional and is open to all children. Recently the club renovated its facility, including a 10,000-square-foot Teen Center open to all teens, ages 13-18. Club membership is $25 a year and no child is turned away for inability to pay. To help and to get information, visit www.bgcn.com or call Norm Bouthilette at 689-1018, ext. 231.