LOWELL Over the past thirteen years, Sue Boule and her family have been working with the town of Dracut to build a park in honor of her son, Mathew G. Boule, who was the first Massachusetts casualty in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Army Spc. Mathew G. Boule Memorial Park Fund has gained dedicated support over the years, and it is because of that support the organization was declared the latest winner of Jeanne D"Arc Credit Union"s Give-A-Click Campaign.
The campaign runs every quarter on the Credit Union"s We Share a Common Thread Foundation website. Community members visit the site to read about worthy non-profit organizations and vote for their favorite one. The charity with the most votes is awarded a $1,500 donation from the Foundation. New charities are posted every quarter and people of the community, Jeanne D"Arc members, employees and the organizations" supporters are encouraged to visit
WeShareACommonThread.org to help their favorite nonprofits gain a much-needed donation.
The Mathew G. Memorial Park Fund shared dozens of Facebook posts, encouraged their supporters to vote and even created postcards with QR codes so people could easily visit the voting site.
"People would email me and let me know that they voted. I had one person from England and she told me she voted. And another from Africa," said Sue Boule, President of the Memorial Park Fund.
"The support has been amazing," said Emily Farnham, Treasurer. "You really get to see the power of the community and just how wide-spread it is," she added.
The park, located at 1200 Lakeview Avenue in Dracut, is slated to be open for use on November 5, 2016, and although things are moving along quickly now, it wasn"t always the case. Beginning in 2004, about one year after Mat"s passing, Sue visited numerous pieces of land in Dracut, but none seemed like the right spot to honor her son.
"We were looking for a place where people could have picnics, fish and relax," said Sue. "We wanted someplace people could spend time at and his nieces and nephews could play at. Mat loved kids," she added.
It wasn"t until August 2015 that the town of Dracut approved plans to build the park on a parcel of land where the abandoned Department of Public Works building resided. A few months later the building was knocked down and park plans quickly ensued.
The now concrete lot will soon be covered with grass, shaded by Autumn Blaze Maple Trees and offer benches and picnic tables for visitors to sit, relax and enjoy the view of Beaver Brook. There will also be a stone monument holding a plaque and a 2D Black Hawk helicopter to honor Mat. The 22-year-old Crew Chief was killed when his Black Hawk was shot down in Iraq.
"This is a way to keep Mat a part of the town of Dracut," said Kathleen (Kat) Pintal, who was Mat"s fianc�e and is the organization"s Vice President.
Jeanne D"Arc Credit Union was also honored to feature Strongwater Farm and Groundwork Lawrence as nominees in the second quarter campaign.
The third-quarter contest kicked off on July 1
st with the following organizations vying for the next donation: The Joseph Middlemiss Big Heart Foundation, Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter and Westford Against Substance Abuse.
Photo cutline: Mark S. Cochran, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jeanne D"Arc Credit Union (middle), presents Army Spc, Mathew G. Boule Memorial Park Fund committee members, (left to right), Marguerite Pintal, Secretary, Emily Farnham, Treasurer, Sue Boule, President, and Kathleen (Kat) Pintal, Vice President with a $1,500 donation. The Mathew G. Boule Memorial Park Fund is the latest winner of Jeanne D"Arc Credit Union"s Give-A-Click Campaign.
About Jeanne D"Arc Credit Union:
Jeanne D"Arc Credit Union was established in 1912 and is a full-service, member-owned community-based financial cooperative with more than 75,000 members and $1.2 billion in assets. It operates seven full-service branches in Lowell, Dracut (2), Tyngsboro, Chelmsford, Methuen and Westford, Massachusetts; high-school branches at Lowell High and Dracut High schools; a loan center in Lowell; a mortgage centers in Chelmsford and North Reading; and is opening a branch in Fall 2016 in Nashua, NH.
