The Club is fortunate to have ESPN call Bristol home. In the last several years, ESPN has become a critical partner with the Boys & Girls Club and Family Center, and the Imagine Nation Museum.
On a regular basis, ESPN volunteers assist with Club programs from cleaning the Museum to running sports clinics. Last year, ESPN arranged for the NBA RV to stop in Bristol on its way between New York and Boston and entertain the Club kids.
In 2009, ESPN celebrated its 30 anniversary and challenged all employees to donate 30,000 hours of volunteer time to the non-profit community. The Club was lucky to receive many of these hours from ESPN employees. The highlight of their anniversary activities included a ESPN Team Build featuring their top executives including ESPN George Bodenheimer, who spent an afternoon alongside Club members and staff at Cambridge Park rebuilding the baseball field prior to the start of the Roberto Clemente summer baseball league beginning. What was once a field of weeds and rocks was transformed into a field of dreams complete with new turf, irrigation and new dugouts.
As the leader in worldwide sports concluded their celebration on September 12, 2009, 30 years to the day they went on the air for the first time, they announced that they would be a major donor to the Club's efforts to build a new Club in the next five years. The Boys & Girls Club and Family Center salutes ESPN on the occasion of its 30 years in Bristol, and thanks them for their continued support in helping us make kids GREAT.