BOSTON (WHDH) - Hundreds of people gathered for the Boys & Girls Club of Boston’s annual dinner at the Omni Boston Hotel on Thursday to raise money for club members, their families, and the organization’s initiatives.
And the Ansin family, which owns 7NEWS, is continuing their legacy for supporting the Boys & Girls Club of Charlestown.
August Nwaford, 10, loves going to the Charlestown location after school, calling it “a boost of fun.”
To August, the Ansin Youth Center is like a home away from home.
“My favorite thing about coming here is probably volunteering,” August said. “I volunteer a lot.”
Music is a source of inspiration for Micah Marshall, a senior at Charlestown High School who is also a member.
“It’s a place for the youth to group up and to know each other because in all of Charlestown there isn’t really a place like this for them to go to and get to know each other,” he said.
Executive Director Derek Gallagher says its the spirit and energy of kids like August and Micah that makes the club a success.
“There might be 800, 900 different members and every single one of them is coming from a different place and we want to make sure we can make them the best version of who they are,” he said.
Ed Ansin, the late owner of 7NEWS, had a special place in his heart for the Charlestown Boys & Girls Club and was instrumental in a renovation project that transformed the facility in the 1990s — and the youth center now bears the family’s name.
And now his family is continuing his legacy, donating $100,000 to restore the exterior of the club. The four-month project was recently completed.
WHDH-TV & WLVI-TV VP & General Manager Jimmy Roger said of the project, “It’s only appropriate that some TLC be paid to the outside considering all the good that goes on inside. The Ansin Foundation really believes in the Boys & Girls Club and they wanted to provide a safe shelter for these kids to come and become the future leaders of Charlestown.”
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