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Patricia Slonina Vieira, of Cumberland, serves on the board of directors of San Miguel School.
As a Pawtucket native, I know the impact PawSox owner Ben Mondor made in the city — transforming a fading minor league baseball team into a top-tier franchise — to the delight of generations of fans. Like countless local teenagers, my three daughters worked summers at McCoy Stadium throughout their high school and college years. It was a safe, family-friendly environment where they learned the value of hard work, team effort and customer service.
It was sad to read in The Providence Journal (“Looking for a game plan,” News, Oct. 15) that McCoy Stadium — once a jewel among minor league stadiums — has fallen into disrepair. But the neglected facility certainly is not the measure of Ben Mondor’s success or legacy. There is so much more to remember and honor.
Ben and the Pawtucket Red Sox supported many local charities and Ben served on the boards of multiple Rhode Island nonprofits. In the final year of his life, he was introduced to the young men of the San Miguel School in Providence.
San Miguel is a private, nonsectarian school for boys in grades five to eight who come from challenging circumstances; 89 percent of its 64 students live at or below the poverty guidelines that qualify them for free school lunches. The Providence school was founded in 1993 by Brother Lawrence Goyette, and is almost entirely sustained by charitable gifts. Brother Lawrence’s dream was to give young boys a better chance to succeed in school and in life — a chance related not to their zip code, but to their abilities and ambition.
After Ben’s first visit to a San Miguel morning assembly in early 2010 — where every boy shook his hand and welcomed him — he knew it was a special place. He recognized San Miguel’s rigorous education, caring environment and positive culture as a recipe for success. Always the astute businessman, he promptly decided to invest in San Miguel’s students.
Ben and his wife, Madeleine, sponsored three students and offered the boys a red-carpet welcome at McCoy Stadium. They also made gifts to support San Miguel’s move from its original location on Carter Street to a new home on Branch Avenue in a school building rented from St. Ann’s Church. Ben knew the move into a more spacious facility would allow San Miguel to expand its academic and extracurricular offerings and increase opportunities for students. Sadly, he had only a few more months to visit with his San Miguel friends.
In 2014, a transformational gift of $1.1 million from Ben Mondor’s estate enabled San Miguel School to purchase the building from St. Ann’s. The budgeted rental payments were redirected to provide perpetual scholarships in the Mondors’ names.
This year, 128 San Miguel graduates are attending selective public, private and charter high schools and competitive colleges and universities. They join over 200 alumni who have become accomplished adults and engaged citizens. Many return to share with current students some “keys to life” they’ve learned, attributing their success to the school they entered as cautious young boys and left as confident young men.
I believe the success of San Miguel’s students and graduates is Ben Mondor’s greatest legacy. The impact of his investment in their lives and families for generations to come will surely outlast any plans for the aging stadium he once rehabilitated. Thanks to the Mondors’ foresight and generosity, San Miguel School will continue to provide many more Miguel Men with the education and the future they deserve.
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