Over 100 volunteers gathered at the Boys & Girls Club of Fall River on Bedford Street to construct a new playground for the facility, all in a single day, May 15, 2007. The club used a $25,000 capital donation from Ronald McDonald House Charities as well as a grant from KaBOOM, a national nonprofit organization that envisions a playground within walking distance of every child in America, to meet the $50,000 cost of the project. KaBOOM, which has built some 1,000 playgrounds in the United States (over 50 in New Orleans alone), received funding for the Boys and Girls Club from Allergan Pharmaceuticals which sent about 75 volunteers from all over the United States. Allergan employees were in Boston for a national conference but came down to Fall River for the construction project. Company officials had met with a 30-person design team, including ten children from the Club, back in March. The final design plan was voted on by Club members. Click here and here to read Herald News articles about the project. For more information about the Club and its programs, contact Executive Director Peter McCarthy at 508-672-6340.
 

(Top row, left and center) Brianna Crozier joined two U-Mass Sigma Tar Gamma Fraternity members in raking bark chips onto a tarp that Allergan employees transported to the playground site next to the new Boys & Girls Club building. (Top row, right) Boys & Girls Club staffer Monica Tavares joined Allergan volunteers Bruce Strickland and Jose Bonilla in constructing some of the equipment. (Middle row, left and center) Youth Activities Director Mimi Larrivee pitches in on a painting project with Colleen Kiely of New York City and Ellen Allocta of Baltimore. (Middle row, right) Ali Smyers of Harrisburg, PA, hammers a bolt into the new swing structure. (Bottom row, left) Boys & Girls Club Board of Directors member Brad Curtis gets some final instructions from Boys' and Girls' Club Director Peter McCarthy. (Bottom row, center) Volunteers gather in front of the completed structure having finished an hour and a half ahead of schedule. (Bottom row, right) Peter McCarthy talks with Allergen Director of Training and Communication Joe Schreck.