Club Par-X breakfast raises $7,000 for St. Jude’s Hospital
Local groups pitch in on 32-year tradition
WOONSOCKET — Local residents once again showed their willingness to help families facing catastrophic illness with a strong showing at the 32nd annual St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital breakfast fundraiser, put on by Joseph G. Hyder at Club Par-X on Sunday.
The breakfast is expected to bring in about $7,000 in donations and fundraising for St. Jude Children’s Hospital and add to the more than $300,000 Hyder, a retired area radio and television personality, has raised for St. Jude Hospital through his various fundraising events since the 1970s.
Hyder, 89, couldn’t have been happier with the outcome of the latest St. Jude Children’s Hospital fundraiser while noting the expected final tally.
“I think we are going to do better than we did last year and it makes me feel grateful to the people of Woonsocket,” Hyder said. “I am so happy with what they grace our event with every year and it only gets better every year.”
The breakfast supports the goal St. Jude’s Hospital founder Danny Thomas set for the Memphis, Tenn., research and treatment facility that “No child should die in the dawn of life….” St. Jude Hospital’s does not charge families for its care and also provides support for their stays while in Memphis.
Romeo Berthiaume, chairman of the St. Jude Hospital Breakfast committee, also had praise for all the support the event received this year.
“It went very well and it was one of our biggest breakfasts. We did better than we did last year,” Berthiaume said while noting a total of 285 tickets were sold for Sunday’s event.
The breakfast also featured raffles that brought in another $1,440, a live auction that raised $838, and a silent auction raising $190.
The Woonsocket Elks Club provided a $100 cash donation, and the Woonsocket Lions Club $250 in addition to fundraising that came in from an ad book put together for the event.
The key to the breakfast success was also the heavy lifting help provided by Club Par-X, at 36 Stanley Ave., which donated the use of its community hall, provided all the food for breakfast and also cooked the meals to order, as is the club’s tradition.
The breakfast cooks included Club President David Bergeron, Ezell Farrow, Ralph Dumas, Danielle Lima, club treasurer; Scott Duguay, Linda Duguay, Mike Gamache, Keith Duguay, James Cooper and Marc Cournoyer.
Bergeron noted the St. Jude breakfast is Club Par-X’s largest community service event and the organization does it every year “because we want to help our community.”
The St. Jude Hospital breakfast is a longstanding tradition for the club, he added.
That had one advantage for Bergeron in his new role as president, since everyone working on Sunday was so experienced in the community service project.
“These members all work as a well-oiled machine, and it goes great because they are the best,” he said of the breakfast crew.
The breakfast once again featured bus transportation donated by William Legare of Valley Transportation that allowed patrons to park at the high school and catch a shuttle running to Stanley Avenue every 15 minutes, and the support of benefactors donating items for the auctions, such as signed baseballs from Red Sox relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel, New York Yankee Whitey Ford, and other noted players.
There were also gift certificates raffled off from area businesses and gift baskets, too.
The volunteers serving as waitstaff included City Council President Dan Gendron and his daughter Victoria; City Councilman Christopher Beauchamp, Greg Go, Wally Rathbun and Dominic Doiron of the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center, and Roxanne Carey of the school department.
Berthiaume noted that past breakfast chairman, Noel Pincince, also showed up on Sunday to do his annual task of decorating the hall with Tina Go before the event began. It was just another example of how everyone helps out, he noted.
“It is a true community effort, not only for us on the committee but for everyone that comes out every year,” he said.