Boys & Girls Club Sign Unveiling Recognizes Donor Generosity
Writer & Photographer / Natalie Platt
The Tom & Soni Sheehan Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville (BGCN) is planning today so they’re able to guide children well into the bright future of the Noblesville community. Through the Great Futures Fund, the community can help Noblesville youths get on the right path in life and stay there. Most recently, BGCN kicked off an endowment campaign in 2019 to ensure financial success for years to come. 
Hamilton County is expected to add 218,000 residents by 2050, according to the Indiana Business Research Center. Among the county’s nine cities and towns, Noblesville is projected to see some of the greatest population increases.
Over the next few decades and beyond, the need for a strong Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville will grow as more and more families call Noblesville home. Today’s donors who support the Great Futures Fund will help make sure community children and teens have an affordable place to learn and develop as individuals, through after-school and summer enrichment programs.
Currently, the Great Futures Fund has topped the $1 million mark with an additional $1.11 million in pledges. The campaign has a goal of achieving $3 million before tapping into any disbursement of funds.
The campaign, which was unfortunately put on the back-burner during the pandemic, has ramped back up in the last two years. Recognizing donors for their generosity is important to the club’s leadership, and that’s exactly what the signage recognition ceremony did on May 11.
The signage, to recognize Heritage Club members and endowment campaign donors, has a prime location right outside the main entrance to the BGCN facility. Every day, those who visit the building will walk directly past the three large signs that showcase campaign donors’ support.
Tom and Soni Sheehan have committed the largest endowment gift to date, a $1 million pledge. The Sheehans also made a $2 million pledge to the club in 2016 for the Build & Grow capital campaign for the current facility, which included naming rights.
“Giving our time and treasure has been a source of fulfillment for our family for a long time, and a way to honor our son Tim’s memory, whom we lost when he was 12,” Tom Sheehan says. “When you give generously to the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville through the Great Futures Fund, you make a real difference in shaping lives and the place we all call home.”
Tom and Soni Sheehan have been supporters of the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville for decades. Tom founded Carmel Financial Corporation in 1967, and Soni is a former Club Volunteer of the Year and current volunteer.
“Our youth are this community’s future – our future leaders, neighbors and workforce,” Sheehan says. “All these years, our giving has always been about these kids. Keeping kids off the street and in a safe, loving environment builds character and helps them become the people they dream of becoming.”
“I have served in several roles as a member of the Board of Directors for the Boys & Girls Club, but one of the most important to me was establishing the Great Futures Fund,” says Board Member Daryl Petry. “The Great Futures fund is like an endowment fund, which will help the club weather the storm when unbudgeted expenses such as a roof leak or air conditioner repair suddenly pops up. It is my belief that the club needs a fund like this to be prepared for those unexpected moments that come along, so operations can continue seamlessly without a loss of the services we provide for the kids in our area – because this is all about the kids.”
Petry is a past BGCN board president, endowment committee chair, and owner of Petry Wealth Management.
“My twin sons participated in club sports when they were growing up and two of my grandsons were members,” says Luke Kenley, former board member, and former Indiana State senator (District 20) and Noblesville City Court judge. “Every kid who wants or needs the club should be able to go. The Great Futures Fund helps ensure operations continue for all our club kids.”
For more info, visit bgcni.org.
