New Projects In Store for Seven Boys & Girls Club Branches in Philadelphia

Photo credit: Joseph Kaczmarek | Courtesy of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia

Here’s some happy news for your mid-week slump: the Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia and Comcast have teamed up to create “A Bold Change for Kids,” a capital campaign that’s aiming to raise $40 million, half of which would go to funding the construction of a new Germantown club! The rest, according to yesterday’s press release, would go to renovating the following club branches: Bridesburg, Northeast Frankford, Police Officer Lauretha Vaird, Shane Victorino Nicetown, Wayne Avenue, and Wissahickon.

Kicking off the new campaign is an $8 million donation from the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation and the Roberts family. The new club will be named after Ralph J. Roberts, Comcast’s co-founder and a Penn graduate who spent his late adolescence in Germantown. Here’s an early rendering of the upcoming building by Friday Architects/Planners:

Click to enlarge.| Image courtesy of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia

Anticipated amenities at the upcoming Ralph J. Roberts Boys & Girls Club include a full-sized ice hockey rink, set to have the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation as its operator; a double gym for soccer, basketball, and volleyball leagues; social recreation space; dance room and music studio; an art room; Kids Café; Essentials Lab; Digital Literacy Center; and a STEM lab. It’s slated to be “one of the most technologically-advanced Clubs in the country.”

The Inquirer’s Bob Fernandez reports Comcast Senior Executive V.P. David L. Cohen, who will serve as the campaign chair, says “he expects to have the $40 million raised by the end of 2016.” Groundbreaking on the Germantown project might have a possibility of happening before then, however, as a Boys & Girls Clubs spokesperson told us it could happen once $30 million is raised.