Pawtucket Boys & Girls Club receives $5.1M gift

PAWTUCKET – The largest single philanthropic gift awarded to the Boys & Girls Club of Pawtucket in its 118-year history – a $5.1 million bequest from the estate of long-time benefactors Edward W. and Eleanor F. Barlow – was announced Monday by the nonprofit organization.

Calling the bequest “truly transformational,” BGCP CEO James R. Hoyt, Jr. said the funds will have “a lasting impact on thousands of club members and campers, both now and in the future.”

The money will be used to pay off the remaining mortgage of the One Moeller Place, Pawtucket clubhouse, which was renovated in 2015. Through their Building Better Futures Capital & Endowment Campaign, the organization raised $8 million to support the project, which left just under $1 million to be financed.

The remainder – roughly $4 million – will be “restricted to Camp Ramsbottom,” the club’s summer facility in Rehoboth.

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Edward Barlow, former president of the Seekonk Lace Co. in Pawtucket as well as the Rhode Island Lace Co. in Barrington, served on and led the club’s board of directors before passing away in 2010. A registered nurse, Eleanor Barlow was the nursing supervisor of the operating rooms at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island and a founding member of the Memorial Hospital Corp. She died in 2016.

Emily Gowdey-Backus is a staff writer for PBN. You can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey or contact her via email, gowdey-backus@pbn.com.