By Michelle Xiarhos Curran
ECCF COMMUNICATIONS WRITER & STORYTELLER

Senator Pavel Payano, who grew up in the city of Lawrence and for decades has been deeply involved in his community, stands facing a group of ECCF friends gathered on a minibus making its bumpy way through the city streets. We’re on our way to the final stop of the day: the New Balance Foundation SquashBusters Center on Island Street. And despite the scorching summer heat of late July, passengers are in good spirits.

The annual ECCF Greater Lawrence Summer Fund (GLSF) bus tour will do that for people. It’s a day of good vibes and inspiration, an opportunity for participants to step outside their normal routines, witness the real impacts of local, collective philanthropy and get a glimpse of a place that is buoyed by the passion and power of its people.

Senator Payano has been involved with the Summer Fund for many years, and on the ride to SquashBusters, he talks about the city he loves, its challenges and its progress. He details the growth of educational opportunities, the rise in the number of Lawrence students going off to college and the sense of community here that continues to flourish.

“The biggest potential Lawrence has is its people,” he says.

We’ve seen this declaration brought to life throughout the morning. Our group has already visited Youth Development Organization (YDO), Utopia Dance Company and the Manos Felices! program of Communities Together, which offers summer enrichment to elementary-aged students residing in the Hancock and Stadium Courts housing developments.

We’ve seen youth creating art, rehearsing for an end-of-summer musical, exploring science and math concepts and experiencing the potent joy of Bomba, an expressive, rhythmic dance that originated in Puerto Rico. We’ve heard from program participants-turned-mentors, wise beyond their young years, and nonprofit leaders who are passionate about making a difference in their community and in the lives of its youth.

“It’s a safe haven for them here, where they can feel heard and seen,” Manos Felices! Executive Director Madelyn Sang said as she and Program Director Christian Molina showed us around their small, but welcoming program space at Hancock Courts.

Here, kids draw and paint. They craft, play games, read and participate in team-building activities. Sang and Molina say the kids often ask why the space can’t be open during the weekends. Manos Felices!, like many small nonprofits across Lawrence and beyond, do incredible things with limited resources.

“These are organizations that don’t necessarily need a lot to do what they do, but they have a really, really big impact on the kids,” said Senator Payano.

For more than 30 years, hundreds of donors have come together through the GLSF to power nonprofit organizations like these working hard to provide high-quality summer programming for Greater Lawrence youth, programming that enhances social, emotional and academic abilities; promotes safety and health; and reduces summer learning loss. These programs fill a critical need in the city, where increased opportunity can decrease the life outcome disparities created by poverty and other challenges urban youth face.

“Thanks to a collective of generous donors who care deeply about young people, the Greater Lawrence Summer Fund has been able to support the health, hopes and dreams of thousands of youth from Greater Lawrence,” said Hehershe Busuego, ECCF’s vice president of equity initiatives. “We are incredibly grateful for this continued support, particularly at a time when nonprofits are increasingly concerned about funding.”

YDO, Utopia Dance Company, Communities Together and SquashBusters are just four of the 55 nonprofits that together received more than $406,000 in GLSF funding for the summer of 2025. The focus areas of funded programs span the arts, college readiness, environmental awareness, healthy lifestyles, job and career readiness, outdoor recreation and more.

[View a list of all 55 GLSF grantees for 2025.]

Last Stop: SquashBusters

When the bus pulls up to Island Street, there is an audible murmur of excitement. We’ve arrived at Island Parkside, a new development by Lawrence CommunityWorks that includes the beautiful five-story brick building that houses SquashBusters, plus 40 affordable housing units. Next to SquashBusters, a man on a lift is painting a large mural, the profile of a woman, on the façade of another new brick building, home to an additional 40 affordable housing units.

Island Parkside is helping to address the overwhelming demand for quality, affordable rentals in the city of Lawrence. And it’s an ideal location for SquashBusters, which formerly operated out of borrowed courts and classrooms at Brooks School and Phillips Academy.

“It’s a dream to be here,” said SquashBusters Director of Development & Partnerships Andrés Burbank-Crump, as he guides our tour through academic classroom space and downstairs to the state-of the-art squash courts, where groups of kids are practicing. “Now, we’re significantly more accessible and we’re excited to find new opportunities to get more people in the building.”

If you don’t know anything about squash, it’s a racket sport, played on a four-walled court with a hollow rubber ball. The goal is to hit the ball against the front wall in a way that your opponent can’t return it. It requires skill, fitness and strategy.

“Alex, that’s a beautiful serve!” Squash Director Doug Burbank shouts to one of his student-athletes, who returns his compliment with an ear-to-ear smile.

While squash is a main feature of their programming, SquashBusters is about so much more than the sport. The nonprofit supports young people year-round by combining the challenges of squash with academic, enrichment and support, and service opportunities to help them recognize and reach their full potential. SquashBusters recruits students in the sixth grade and works with them throughout middle and high school, encouraging and mentoring them through the college admissions process.

“We have really long-term relationships with these kids,” said Burbank-Crump.

And these relationships pay off. Ninety-eight percent of SquashBusters graduates enroll in college, some with full-ride academic scholarships or offers to play collegiate squash.

During summer, students practice and play in tournaments, attend field trips and socialize safely with friends, an increasingly popular activity with the new, accessible Center at Island Parkside.

Site Visits with a Purpose

ECCF strives to make authentic connections between donors and nonprofits doing incredible work to support local communities.

“As a community foundation, it’s important to us for our fundholders and donors to have the opportunity to see impact in action,” said Amy Moran Lowe, ECCF’s director of grants and programs. “When you come face-to-face with the work happening in our communities, it fills you with hope, inspiration and an understanding of just how critical nonprofits are to the health of Essex County.”

Donors agree.

“Coming here to see it, it’s such a difference than looking at your brochures or talking to you on the phone,” a donor told Burbank-Crump at SquashBusters.

That experience is one of the many reasons that ECCF Nonprofit Services Associate Davina O’Norng takes such care in organizing the GLSF bus tour each year.

“I grew up in Lawrence, so I’ve always known the strength of this community,” she said. “It’s such an honor to share this side of my hometown and inspire people to support the incredible nonprofits here that are really helping to shape the futures of young people.”

Each year, the Greater Lawrence Summer Fund awards up to $15,000 to nonprofit organizations with summer programs serving youth from the Greater Lawrence communities of Lawrence, Methuen, Andover and North Andover. For more information, visit www.eccf.org/greater-lawrence-summer-fund/.