The E Club of Everett is holding its 54th annual scholarship and awards dinner on May 21 at Spinelli’s in Lynnfield.
That is not a city hall fight, not a zoning panic, and not one more meeting where people pretend a petition is a governing document. It is an old Everett institution doing what old Everett institutions are supposed to do: raising money and handing it to kids who earned it.
According to the Everett Independent, social hour starts at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and the awards program. E Club president Michael LaCourt said the organization will award $20,000 in scholarships to ten Everett High School student-athletes. More than 20 additional awards will go to athletes from EHS fall, winter, and spring varsity teams.
That is real money. Not a slogan. Not a panel discussion. Money.
LaCourt, an Everett High graduate from the class of 1987, is now in his fifth year as president. He told the Independent, “I was a member of the ‘E’ Club in high school.” He also noted that he was once an E Club scholarship recipient himself, which is usually a decent sign an organization is doing what it says it does.
He tied his involvement to family and local sports tradition, saying, “My uncle, Jack McGrath, was very involved in sports. Jack lived downstairs from us on Pleasant Street in Everett. After his passing in 2020, Tank Agnetta and Armando Leo approached me about getting more involved, and that’s when I became more directly active in the organization.”
That sounds like Everett. People know each other. Somebody asks. Somebody steps up. The thing continues.
LaCourt also gave credit where it belongs, pointing to Executive Director Carl Colson and Treasurer Daryl Colson for helping sustain the group’s “54-year success story.” He added, “The club benefits from the generosity of the different groups of people around the city – obviously it takes a village.”
The program will be emceed by Ward 4 City Councilor Holly Garcia, who also serves as E Club vice president. Mayor Robert Van Campen, Sen. Sal DiDomenico, Rep. Joseph McGonigle, Superintendent William Hart, Athletic Director Tammy Turner, and softball coach Stacy Poste-Schiavo are expected to attend, along with more than 200 guests.
The electeds will no doubt be introduced as luminaries. Fine. But the point of the night is not the guest list. It is the students.
LaCourt also used the announcement to reminisce about Everett High athletics in the 1980s, recalling, “My junior year in basketball we had Robert ‘Bug’ Fialli, Kevin Noonan, Paul Tierney and we won the GBL under coach [John] DiBiaso.” He added, “We also won the GBL title in baseball that year coached by Ernie Ardolino.”
Fialli is expected to attend. Nice touch.
In a city where too much public attention gets burned up on political theater, the E Club dinner is a reminder that some local institutions still operate on a simpler model: raise funds, honor achievement, and help Everett kids pay for what comes next. That is not glamorous. It is just useful. Which, around here, is usually the better thing.