Nashua Community Volunteer Hero: Judge volunteers countless hours to help youth

NASHUA – Joseph Laplante has had an impact on thousands of kids’ lives over the last 20-plus years. But he’s not a teacher or a Boy Scout leader. He doesn’t run an after-school program or coach Little League. He’s a volunteer and for more than two decades has organized youth teams, including wrestling, cross-country running, football and street hockey, that thousands of kids participate in through organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua and the Nashua Police Athletic League. Laplante, 47, was chosen as The Telegraph’s Community Volunteer Hero. “He volunteers countless hours, recruits volunteers, and mentors many of our youth members into becoming more positive members of the Nashua community,” Sarah Carey, the individual services director at the Boys & Girls Club, wrote in nominating Laplante for the award. Laplante, whose day job since 2007 has been to preside over a U.S. District Court courtroom, organizes the Boys & Girls Club’s middle and high school wrestling program, Gate City Wrestling, along with a middle school hockey program for Boys & Girls Club and Nashua PAL members, Carey said. He also serves on the Rivier University Board of Trustees and volunteers for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Nashua. He stepped down as chairman of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Nashua Region Board when he was appointed to the bench in 2007 because of judicial ethics rules. Oh, and he teaches as an adjunct professor of Statutory Interpretation at the University of New Hampshire Law School. “He’s just an incredible asset to us,” Carey said.