Photo Credit: Rendering Courtesy of Stanmar Inc.
Many youth centers experience the same set of problems: too little, poorly configured program space, and noncompliance with standards for accessibility or safety. And most of these problems have the same root cause, which in the case of the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club can be summed up in two numbers: 1960 and 80. Respectively, that’s the year the club was built, and the number of members it served at that time.
These days, the club has more than 700 members—65 percent of the island’s registered public-school children in grades 1 through 8, and 50 percent of kids in the two local private schools. Through 2013, the original building remained unchanged, with the exception of a small expansion of its game room in the 1990s.
This year, though, the facility begins a long-awaited, 20,000-square-foot expansion. Its dangerous gymnasium—with walls only a few feet beyond the basketball court’s side- and baselines—is being demolished, and a new, fully compliant, two-court gym is taking its place, along with expanded facilities for the club’s myriad after-school and summer programs. In a town and county population of 10,300 residents that expands to 50,000 during the summer months, including summer residents, tourists, and attendant service-industry workers, the updated club can now broaden its offerings to young people year-round.