Nonprofits like the Boys & Girls Clubs are a backbone of RI: Commentary
When I talk about the value of nonprofit organizations to the communities they serve, I like to start with my own family’s story.
In Cumberland, my dad’s longtime friend John Partington mentioned to him that young men had no place to go in our community. That’s when my dad said, let’s do something to change that.
They began by soliciting donations – 50 cents here, a dollar there – and in 1956, they opened the Boys Club of Cumberland-Lincoln at the American Legion Post on Broad Street. Years later, the club got its own permanent building, located on what is now James McKee Way – that’s my dad.