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A HARLEM
HOMECOMING
Madison Square Boys and Girls Club plants roots in new Harlem base to help children soar BY KAREEMA CHARLES
l Madison Square Boys & Girls Club is coming back to Manhattan, this time to Central Harlem, and returning to roots it set down over 130 years ago.“ The vision of the Madison Board of Trustees was to one day return to Manhattan to provide our after school services for kids most in need,” said Tim McChristian, Executive Director of Madison Square Boys & Girls Club. The new 45,000-square foot Pinkerton Clubhouse will include classrooms for academic review and homework help, a digital arts center, dance studio, music studio, art studio, gymnasium with a rock-climbing wall and a rooftop sports field. It will also serve as the new administrative headquar- ters for Madison Square Boys and Girls Club. Set to open in early 2019 at West 155th Street and Bradhurst Avenue, the Clubhouse may be among the few to receive the blessings
Tim McChristian, Executive Director of Madison Square Boys & Girls Club. Set to open in 2019, the Pinkerton Clubhouse serves many purposes as a safe space for the arts, sports, culture and community.
of two U.S. presidents, one of which has made Harlem
his workplace since leaving the White House. “Nobody ever amounts to much without a hand-up now and then, without a pat on the back, without someone looking after them telling them it’s going to be alright,” said President Bill Clinton, at the ground breaking event in May 2017, according to a Clubhouse report of the ceremony. “That’s why I love the Boys and Girls Club, why I love this project, and why I’ll always be grateful to the people who stood up for me and stood up to me when I was an unruly young boy. I am grateful to the people who do the same thing here today.” President George H.W. Bush also wished the Club well. The Club was founded in lower Manhattan in 1884 and was one of the original organizations that start- ed the national Boys and Girls Club of America program.
HARLEM FINE ARTS SHOW MAGAZINE PAGE 41
