The Salesians Boys & Girls Club and Zumix will each receive a $5,000 grant from the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) as part of $120,000 in community grants that went to 24 Boston nonprofits during the Authority’s annual awards luncheon on May 29.
The awards were distributed as part of the MCCA’s Community Partnership and Hospitality Scholarship Fund, a two-part program established and sponsored by the MCCA and former State Senator Jack Hart. The program is funded by revenue generated from consumer shows held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. The goal of the program is for all of Boston’s neighborhoods to benefit from the work of the MCCA as well as to provide workforce development support for Massachusetts students entering the hospitality industry.
“The Salesian Boys & Girls Club of East Boston is extremely grateful to the MCCA for this grant,” said Boys $ Girls Club Executive Director Father John Nazzaro. “It is earmarked for an art and cultural development program we will call “Sit in a Circle” that will allow our Club members to recognize their own self-worth, talent, imagination and understanding of diverse cultures and history through interactive dialogue with their peers using creative tools such as digital cameras, art supplies, music, dance, writing, and story-telling.”
Fr. Nazzaro said this program will generate innovative peer-to-peer interaction through structured individual and team building settings advances informational, educational and tolerance activities while offering opportunities to fine tune each child’s specific talents and skills.
Over at Zumix the money will be used to expand its community arts programs.
“We’re so grateful to the MCCA for their support! Their generous grant will allow us to continue to run our Community Arts programs such as our Jazz at the Firehouse series and our Summer Concert Series,” said Zumix Executive Director Madeleine Steczynski. “We’re so happy to be able to provide great arts events for our community and thank the MCCA for helping to make this possible.”
Since the program launched in 2007, the MCCA has awarded more than $647,845 in grants to dozens of nonprofit organizations in Boston and $65,000 in academic scholarships to local students.
“We understand the importance of the extensive number of nonprofits who work tirelessly to serve all of Boston’s diverse neighborhoods,” said MCCA Executive Director James Rooney. “Our Community Partnership Grants program is a way for the MCCA to reward these nonprofits for the positive contributions they are making to Boston and its collection of neighborhoods. The grants are also a way to ensure that the organizations receive the funding that allows them to continue to make our city’s communities better places to live, work and enjoy.”