East Boston: April Club Happenings

By Br. Bob Metell, SDB

(East Boston, MA – April 24) – With spring upon us, the Salesian Boys and Girls Club has changed gears and begun to focus on outside events. This started with the solar eclipse event on Monday, April 8. Club members wore their protective shields and watched the event in the club playground area. The Boston area had around a 90% view of the solar eclipse.

Work is progressing nicely on our new field that will provide us with a playground closer to the clubhouse. The new field contains soccer fields, a softball diamond, scoreboard, jungle gym playground, and restrooms. The scoreboard and most of the lighting are now in place, and the seagulls and birds are happy to have a new resting place! This new field replaces the baseball and football field that was built in the 1960s for St. Dominic Savio High School. This restored playground was made possible through our partnership with Boston Scores, an afterschool enrichment program centered around soccer. I’ll write more about them in a future article.

Friday, April 19, marked Patriots Day, which honors when “The shot around the world” was heard. This was the big event that kicked off the American Revolution.

On April 19, 1775, local militia and British regulars clashed for the first time in open warfare. The battle began on Lexington Village Green and quickly expanded into all-out combat, as British troops headed to Concord a few miles away. Militia hid in wooded areas behind rocks and began to fire upon the British troops. When the British arrived in Concord, they began to raid barns, shops, taverns, and homes. Realizing there were no weapons or artillery stored, they began their march back to Boston, and more fighting erupted along their return route. In the end, the British returned home empty-handed and with staggering losses. Three hundred troops were listed as missing, wounded, captured, and dead. The American losses were 93 wounded, missing, and dead. The war would go on for seven long years.

It’s also the day of the Boston Marathon and Red Sox home opener game. The Boston Marathon began on April 19, 1897. The original route started in Ashland, MA, and ended 24 miles later in Boston. In 1924, the route moved a few miles west from Ashland to Hopkinton. The route was then extended to 26 miles to conform with Olympic Standards.