Letter to the Editor: Rec Dept. Thanks Forbes Kirkside

To the Editor:

For many years, the recreation department has had a gift fund set up for receiving charitable tax deductible contributions.

This fund and the department’s revolving account were originally set up because we no longer have an expense budget or budget to pay for all of our year round wages for part time employees. As many recreation departments do, we charge fees for our programs and use that money to cover costs, wages, etc. That leaves us precious little money to cover unexpected maintenance costs or important scholarships for children. 

Many townspeople are out of work or struggling financially just to keep their homes and feed and clothe their family. Our programs, although very modestly priced, are out of reach of many families. Our ability to provide confidential scholarship assistance is huge for them. Without donations to our gift fund and revolving account, we would not be in a position to help. Just in the last couple of years alone, our requests for assistance have doubled.

Recently, we received an extremely generous donation from the Forbes Kirkside Foundation Inc.

We would like to take this time to publicly thank their board and officers. We cannot begin to tell them how much this gift means to our department, but even more to those less fortunate children who will benefit. This generous donation will provide us the opportunity to award scholarships for quite some time.

Westborough is very fortunate to have a thoughtful, kind and compassionate group such as the Forbes Kirkside Foundation here in our community.

Westborough Recreation Department