Ground broken for Boys and Girls’ Club expansion

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Groundbreaking of the Boys and Girls Club of Manchester expansion on Aug. 4, 2020. Photo/Andrew Sylvia

MANCHESTER, N.H. – On Tuesday, local dignitaries gathered on Union Street for groundbreaking of a clubhouse expansion at the Boys and Girls’ Club of Manchester.

Tuesday’s ceremony put the end in sight for what has been a four-year journey to expand the Union Street facility. The new expansion was supposed to break ground in April until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was always a hard decision to make, I was thinking about optics and people and prices at the time, but I got a lot of support from our board of directors and people in the construction business who said, ‘let’s hold off, let’s figure out what’s going on,” said Diane Fitzpatrick, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Manchester. “Fast forward to here in August, August 4th, and we still don’t know what’s going on, but we do know that we’re going to be there for our children.”


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Edward S. Wolak on Aug. 4, 2020. Credit/Andrew Sylvia

The expansion will be named after 2018 New Hampshire Boys and Girls Club Hall of Fame Award Recipient Edward S. Wolak, who has donated an undisclosed amount to the project.

“Coming from a family of five kids, I was very fortunate to have a roof over my head and this club to come to,” said Wolak who now owns 100 Dunkin’ Donuts locations across New England and New York and serves on the Southern New Hampshire University Board of Trustees. “This club taught me many things including sportsmanship, humility, respect, and most importantly how one person can make a difference.”

Construction on the expansion is set to conclude in Spring of 2021 at a price tag of approximately $2 million.


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A vision of what the expansion will look like upon completion from Concord Street. Courtesy/Lavallee-Bresinger Associates

About this Author

Andrew Sylvia

Assistant EditorManchester Ink Link

Born and raised in the Granite State, Andrew Sylvia has written approximately 10,000 pieces over his career for outlets across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. On top of that, he's a licensed notary and licensed to sell property, casualty and life insurance, he's been a USSF trained youth soccer and futsal referee for the past six years and he can name over 60 national flags in under 60 seconds according to that flag game app he has on his phone, which makes sense because he also has a bachelor's degree in geography (like Michael Jordan). He can also type over 100 words a minute on a good day.