ABOUT

 

The Braintree After School Enrichment program was founded as a non-profit 501 (c) (3) agency in August 1985 by Roselyn Karll.



The School Committee agreed to rent two rooms at Braintree High School to the program at a minimal charge. The program quickly outgrew this space and once again, through community efforts, the B.A.S.E. program moved to a new location. The new location was in a school that had been closed as a full school building. The town rented the gym and the cafeteria to the program. This dedicated space allowed us to open an all- day kindergarten surround program, to assist children who attended the quarter day kindergarten sessions, as well as providing enough space for 95 children. Six years were spent in that location, only to find out that the school would soon reopen due to rising enrollments. The search was on to try and locate new space to house all of the children. Strong community organizing, citizen participation at School Committee meetings and Town Meetings led to the rental of another school building for the all-day programs and a second school building just for after school programs. Each year the program was told that it could be the last year for occupancy because of the once again rising school enrollments.

 

In 1995, a search committee was formed to try and locate land or a building to continue to meet the needs of the community for after school child care. After two years of looking, finally a developer stepped forward with a piece of land for purchase available for new construction. Although this was quite exciting, the task ahead seemed even more ominous. A small private non-profit enterprise had to secure a loan from a bank in order to proceed with the project. Several large banks turned the project down for various reasons. The local bank, Braintree Cooperative, was approached. Even though the bank is not a commercial bank, the President, Edward Cocoran, felt it was a worthy project and the bank could support it as a community endeavor. Thus the loan was secured. Next the fundraising began to try and raise $200,000 for the down payment. Once again, the bank allowed us to raise our funds slowly and spread the down payment out over several construction months. The Harold Brooks Foundation awarded a $7000 grant with a matching $5000 grant if we could raise $5000 within the community. This task was completed and the fundraising continued. The ground breaking ceremony was held in March of 1997 and construction was completed in August 1998. B.A.S.E. opened its doors to 150 after school children and 30 preschool children for all day, year round programs. B.A.S.E. also operates before school programs in each of the seven elementary schools in the town from 7:00 A.M. to 8:45 A.M.

 

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