Borough president’s offi ce allocates $5 million
in funding for Astoria’s Variety Boys & Girls Club
Members of the Variety Boys & Girls Club enjoy the Jr. Home Run Derby at the Elmjack baseball fields. Photos by Gabriele Holtermann
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JUNE 18-JUNE 24, 2021 3
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
Queens Borough President
Donovan Richards joined
Costa Constantinides, CEO
of the Variety Boys & Girls
Club of Queens, for the Junior
Home Run Derby at Elmjack
Little League baseball field
to announce the allocation of
$5 million for the club’s redevelopment
project on Sunday,
June 13.
Constantinides, who served
as Astoria’s City Councilman
for more than seven years
and left the office in April to
become the club’s CEO, was
excited that the redevelopment
will include the first planetarium
in Queens, an Olympic size
swimming pool, science and
art labs, a 1,000-seat arena and
a brand-new theater.
“We provide opportunities
for kids to find their spark and
give the kids an opportunity to
find who they are,” Constantinides
told the parents and
young people who were excited
to dig it out on the baseball
fields.
The redevelopment of the
65-year-old Queens facility of
the national Variety Boys &
Girls Club, currently located at
located at 21-12 30th Rd. in Astoria,
is slated to break ground
in two years, and is projected
to be finished by 2026 with an
approximate price tag of $200
million. It also includes 200
affordable housing units.
Constantinides called the
project, which will replace the
current building with a stateof
the-art facility, “a lighthouse
and a beacon for the
young people of Queens.” He
then shared that he would have
dropped out of high school had
it not been for sports.
“I would go to school because
I wanted to play basketball
with my friends. But that
kept me going to be able to go to
college and to get my law degree
and be able to stand here before
you,” Constantinides said.
“Without that opportunity,
without that spark, I wouldn’t
have stayed in school.”
Richards said that his story
was similar to Constantinides’
and told the crowd that he, too,
might have dropped out of high
school if it weren’t for his love
of basketball, which required
him to keep his grades up, as
well as mentoring programs.
“We may not listen right
away — and this goes to parents
as well — we may not
listen right away, but we do
hear you,” Richards said.
“It’s important that we instill
those values into our young
people and continue to encourage
them, even through their
challenges.”
He announced that his office
“hit a home run” by securing
$5 million to build out Constantinides’
dream and vision,
which drew cheers from the
crowd.
“Our children deserve
quality facilities. Your ZIP
code and your socioeconomic
status should not determine
what your access looks like,”
Richards said.
Variety Boys & Girls Club
is the largest youth development
organization in western
Queens, serving more than
4,000 young people each year.
Nearly 60 percent of club members
hail from the nearby Ravenswood,
Queensbridge and
Astoria Houses communities.
“Our families are excited
about the new club and all the
amazing new programs that
we will have available to the
community,” said Andy Rodriguez,
executive director of
the Variety Boys & Girls Club
of Queens. “With our new site,
we plan on serving many more
families than we serve today so
we look forward to sharing our
bigger and better space when
the new facility is completed.”
Richards, who’s running
for re-election and was endorsed
by Constantinides
prior to his departure from
office, shared that he was also
able to bring in $70 million in
capital for the “World’s Borough”
that will go to organizations
like the Variety Boys &
Girls Club.
“Because we have to not
just rebuild back to normal,
but we’re looking at a new normal
for Queens,” said Richards,
before heading off to
open the baseball derby with
a batting competition with
Constantinides.
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