Officials will cut the ribbon Tuesday on a newly renovated Boys & Girls Clubs of Rochester building at 500 Genesee Street.
Executive Director Dwayne Mahoney says they’re adding over 9 thousand square feet, and the expansion will include a new art room, dance studio, modern recording studio and more space for the Club’s accelerated reader program.
The expansion comes six months after a drive-by shooting outside the Boys and Girls Club which claimed three lives and injured four others.
And while that may have kept people away initially, Mahoney says they've received great community support since that incident, and people know what the Boys and Girls Club stands for: it's a safe place for kids after school.
"Many of the people that we had heard that might have been impacted are back here, and I think over time those things hopefully heal themselves. The main thing is this is a place for kids to be safe after school and so that sentiment I don't think ever left the community. There were those that were a little apprehensive about that, but we don't get that feeling anymore."
The ribbon cutting ceremony is set for 1 pm on Tuesday.
UPDATE: due to the winter storm, the Boys and Girls Club are rescheduling the ribbon-cutting for a later date, likely in March.