Manchester park gets new mural, celebrates community reinvestment

Story Produced by New Hampshire Public Radio, a Member of

Photos by Esmeldy Angeles

MANCHESTER, NH – The Little League clubhouse at Sheehan Basquil Park in downtown Manchester got a facelift this summer. Two dozen students interning with the Nashua nonprofit Positive Street Art spent six weeks on mentorship training, cleaning out the clubhouse and painting a mural on one side.

Positive Street Art coordinator Yasamin Safarzadeh explained that the inspiration for the mural was based on reference photos of little leagues and multicultural festivals from the past. She added that the MYTURN internship program worked with the city to get the mural approved while adding bright colors and a donated A/C unit to the clubhouse.

“[We’re doing this] while sanding, while cleaning, while dumping out tons of mice-infested stuff,” she said. “And then we clean it and paint it and are cooking food, and we’re writing stories at the same time, working on resumes, making graphics for the show, press releases, and this is all in the hands of the youth.”

She said about 50 people helped out with the mural, including students, people from the community and members from partner nonprofits like Opportunity Networks and Waypoint. They all gathered on Saturday to celebrate the clubhouse at a multicultural festival at the park with music, ice cream, and art.

Neighbor José Ortiz joined the festival with his family. He moved to the area in 2019 and said the park has undergone a lot of changes in the past five years.

For example, he hasn’t seen anyone at the nearby Hunt Pool since the summer of 2022. It’s been closed because of serious mechanical issues, according to the city. Instead, kids and families beat the heat at the park’s splash pad that first opened up in 2021.

“It’s stays pretty busy,” he said in Spanish. “A lot of families with their kids. It’s been very good for the kids because of the heat and because we have it right here. It’s pretty accessible so we can come on foot.”

The city has plans to eventually demolish the little league clubhouse and build something else there. Until then, the remodeled clubhouse will still host the little league and the adaptive sports league

Self-described “vibes coordinator” Seana McDuff was one of the people leading the project. She said that the building was previously coated in anti-grafitti paint that needed to be sanded down during July’s record-breaking heat wave.

“Brushtroke by brushstroke, this building came together. The inside came together,” she said. “It was a lot of hard work and a lot of sweat equity.”

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