Empire Loan To The Sportsmen’s Tennis Club of Dorchester: A $50K Thank You!

Aerial Picture of The Sportsmen's Club in Dorchester

All of which has made it a no-brainer for Empire Loan and Michael Goldstein to seek to be a part of the mission.  Michael learned of Sportsmen’s Club through his associations (and friendships) with Steve Thompkins, now at the Suffolk County Sherriff’s Office and formerly on the Sportmen’s Board of Directors, and Susanne Thompkins, Director of Development at Boston’s PBS affiliate WBUR.  Indeed, it was pretty much love at first sight.  Susanne was aware of Mael’s abiding interest in children’s issues, and Steve, whom Michael stayed in touch with since their respective stints at Emerson College, was well aware of Michael’s What-if© approach to Empire’s place and role in the community.  It was a perfect fit!

This summer The Sportsmen’s Tennis Club hosted a USTA “Sectional,” which enables rising young amateur and professional tennis players from all over the globe to compete and acquire the “points” they need to eventually merit international ranking, and a shot at entering the great and fabled tournaments such as the US Open, the French Open, &c. Empire Loan has donated $50,000.00 to The Sportsmen’s Club to help cover the costs of travel, accommodations, and cash prizes for the participants, who alight in Dorchester from as far-flung shores as Japan and Kenya. The kick-off ceremony merited a visit from His Honor Mayor Menino, a keynote address by Michael,  and the week-long event has generated a great deal of positive publicity for the club, and has increased and strengthened the club’s standing within the international tennis community. Perhaps most importantly, it provided an opportunity for local tennis aficionados, particularly the children and adolescents of the club’s youth programs, to witness first-hand some great international youth tennis.   

For a complete overview and tour of the good work that the Sportsmen’s Tennis Club has been doing in Dorchester since 1961, by all means visit their website at http://www.sportsmenstennisclub.org/.  Empire was particularly taken with the club’s notion that the lessons learned from a study and embrace of the sport, and indeed tennis culture more broadly, can be effectively applied to character building, academic achievement, and positive attitude reinforcement. Not all sports are equally predisposed to address these larger life issues. But tennis, with its emphasis on proper physical form, strategizing on the court, endurance building, game etiquette, and a strict code of conduct  vis-à-vis one’s colleagues, competitors, coaches, and trainers, is uniquely and ideally suited as a springboard for preparing to tackle the larger challenges of life, as one is about to enter adulthood and engage the world at large. The spectacular track record of the club, and the success stories of the club’s “graduates” manifestly illustrate this point.  By making the “genteel” (in the best sense of the word) sport of tennis accessible and affordable to a youth and neighborhood population that, in earlier days, might have been excluded economically and culturally from the enjoyment and appreciation of the sport, Sportsmen’s Tennis Club fits right in with the lineage of social-action movements that go back to (dare we suggest it?) the Victorian Age, with its “activists” championing the values and benefits of hewing to the positive conservative virtues of that bygone era, virtues of hard work, self-restraint, respect for one’s elders and peers, and perhaps most important of all, self-reliance. You will get all of that on the court! These are values that Empire Loan, in its desire to “give back” to the communities and neighborhoods in which it operates will heartily support, and does so in a myriad of ways.

New Bedford View from the Harbor

I cross to the other side of the street for the third time in two blocks, seeking to avoid a trio of louche looking hooded characters in baggy jeans, heads down and hands in pockets, advancing with what appears to be a curious combination of menace and aimlessness. Welcome to Acushnet Avenue, city of New Bedford, state of Massachusetts. Read the rest of this entry »

Walk just a few doors down from Empire Loan’s Washington St. flagship jewelry and lending outlet, enter a discreet and unassuming brownstone doorway, and step into the world of Duggan Hill and City Lights, which for nearly 30 years has been providing professional-caliber dance (ballet, tap, hip-hop), theater, music, film editing, and fencing training to kids from the neighborhood and well beyond. It is no exaggeration to say that some serious international talent learned its first steps and got its first professional entrees right inside these modest doors. From the pop start Bobby Brown, Jordan, Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block, Tanille Pritchard of New York’s Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, to Racino Mugica, who is making waves as a bright young choreographer in Las Vegas. What they have in common has been the keen and disciplined nurturing of one Duggan Hill, former choreographer for the Hugh Hefner and Disney Corporations, dancer, choreographer, and teacher extraordinaire. Empire Loan shows how one local pawn shop, is innovative and community-orientated by making a significant annual contribution to the school.

But wait, there is more! Duggan is completing work on a state-of-the-art multi-track recording studio which he has been designing and building pretty much single-handed but with a significant financial assist from (among others) our philanthropist extraordinaire, Michael Goldstein of Empire Loan. A more shining example of local private profits being put back to work into and for the local community, one would be hard pressed to find. This gives an entirely new meaning to the idea of “pawnshop gold,” especially once Duggan’s recording studio will have produced its first hit record! Certainly Duggan feels that way, and after giving us a tour of the facilities, which include a large performance area complete with state, lighting, and props galore, he sat us down to give us an introduction to the artistic activities City Lights has been and is currently involved in.

City Lights provides professional dance training to over 100 kids a year, and boasts some very serious teaching talent, including Ashley Richardson, formerly with the legendary Ballanchine’s New York City Ballet. Duggan’s Dancers provide performing opportunities and puts on performances at Wellesley College, Boston University, and every other year Duggan takes 10 kids to Paris, France, where they team up with top French choreographers to create unique new works. Some of which are brought back for viewing by local audiences. And speaking of which, Duggan plans on presenting some of these Paris-originated works for his annual Christmas Show, which is coming in December. These performances are open to the public and all are heartily invited to attend.

December 23 will mark the Grand Opening of the new City lights recording studio, which Michael has been instrumental in helping to organize. Duggan would like to make a special nod to Boston Sand & Gravel, who donated the concrete foundation of the studio.