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Ground breaking for band shell building
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Special guests broke ground on June 23 for the upcoming band shell at Boardman High School. Pictured, from left, are Tom Ruggieri, Dave Wolfe, John Landers, Tom Madej, Tim Saxton, superintendent Frank Lazzeri, Vickie Davis, Bill Veri and Karen Veri.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Boardman High School band played their fight song during the groundbreaking of the new band shell at Boardman High School on June 23.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Pictured, from left, are Tom Ruggieri, Dave Wolfe, John Landers, Tom Madej, Tim Saxton, superintendent Frank Lazzeri, Vickie Davis, Bill Veri and Karen Veri as they prepared to break ground on June 23 for the building of the new Boardman High School band shell.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Boardman High School band members and majorettes performed on June 23 in honor of the groundbreaking for the new band shell at Boardman High School.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Bill Veri and Boardman High School band director, Tom Riggieri, stood with their shovels after .breaking ground on June 23 to prepare for the building of the new Boardman High School band shell.
By ALEXIS BARTOLOMUCCI
Boardman High School had a ground-breaking ceremony on June 23 for the creation of a new band shell.
Bill Bonte, president of the Booster Club, started the ceremony with an introduction of those who helped the idea of creating a band shell come to life. About six years ago, the Boardman Booster executive committee started going through several phases to get to the point they are at now in the project. Phase one was the turf, phase two was the stands, scoreboard and press box and phase three consists of resurfacing the track, a naming rights facade and a new walkway with bricks that are being sold. Finishing phase three will take another estimated $1 million. All three phases are hoping to be completed by Fall 2017.
“I always said the band was undefeated. So the time is now to make sure they have the right home for the undefeated band,” said Tim Saxton, upcoming Boardman superintendent.
The creation of a new band shell would be hard to accomplish without the help of Bill and Karen Veri. The Veris donated $150,000 to fund the construction of the band shell. Bill Veri met Tom Ruggieri, the Director of Bands, about four years ago. The two started talking about the creation of a band shell last year and Bill Veri offered his help see the project become completed.
“I was willing to do whatever was ever necessary to see the job completed. My only request amongst the guys was that we got it done before this year started,” said Bill Veri.
Tom Ruggieri, Dave Wolfe, John Landers, Tom Madej, Tim Saxton, superintendent Frank Lazzeri, Vickie Davis, Bill Veri and Karen Veri each got a shovel to break ground to start the construction of the band shell. The guests got to keep the shovels after as a keepsake for the important event.
As the ground was being broken, the Boardman High School band played a fight song to help celebrate the ground breaking of the construction of the band shell.
The band shell will be completed by August in time for the upcoming football season and school year.