Milk Fund nears final tally
Milk Fund Drive surpasses $40,000, organizers say
WOONSOCKET – The 2021 Milk Fund Appeal has come to a close but there is good news in tally of donations still coming in, according to Milk Fund Chair Lisa Carcifero.
The latest deposit report on the drive has the Milk Fund tally at $44,904.46 and Carcifero is still expecting a few more donations to be included before the final report is completed next month.
“We’re well over $40,000,” Carcifero said while voicing appreciation for everyone’s work in helping the Milk Fund during a second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The biggest of the recently delivered donations was a $5,664 legacy gift from the Hemmingway/Hamlin Family Trust, a sum pushing this year’s drive out of upper $30,000 level it had reached over the holidays.
“That was a nice surprise at the end,” Carcifero said.
Other contributions such as the $1,000 given by the Woonsocket Teachers Guild, $1,000 from the Woonsocket Rotary Club, the $1,237.20 raised by the Woonsocket Lions Club during its Good Fellows Day collection and another $1,000 from the Crossroads Real Estate Group in Woonsocket also helped the drive and many, many smaller donations, too, according Carcifero.
Judy Sullivan of The Gym LLC on Diamond Hill Road just gave Carcifero a check for $620 raised by the Milk Fund Run held as the first event of the drive in November and the Chelo’s Hometown Bar & Grill fundraiser contributing 20 percent of the bill for diner’s submitting a Milk Fund certificate raised another $214.
“The Milk Fund Run was a good kickoff event,” Carcifero noted. The Chelo’s event was a first time addition and Carcifero believes it will do even better next year with a little bit of advance outreach work on how to obtain and submit the needed donation certificates.
“This was the first year we tried that and we raised $200 and maybe we can push that a little bit more next year,” Carcifero said. .
The 2021 Milk Fund Drive also benefitted from in-person events this year, an
improvement over 2020 when none were scheduled, and organizers from Cercle Laurier, WNRI Radio and the Bocce Club and the WOON Radio Milk Fund Auction all did their part in raising money during another difficult year.
Cercle Laurier’s beer & dynamite brought in over $3,400, and the WNRI and Bocce Club breakfast another $746.
WOON ended up being the biggest individual fund raising effort with a total of over $11,840 coming in just a few hundred dollars shy of last year.
The pandemic continuing for a second year had an impact on the drive and Carcifero said she was thankful to see almost $45,000 even with the resumption of precautions as the appeal neared its end.
“All and all, this was a tough year all around,” Carcifero said.
Just when people thought things were getting better, a new COVID-19 variant arrived and once again people saw a rise in cases and maybe felt it was better to stay home, Carcifero noted.
“Everybody you see has been impacted by COVID in some way,” Carcifero pointed out.
“Some people just erred on the part of caution and chose not to go out,” Carcifero said.
Although there are still donations expected in such as the $1,000 legislative grant secured by state Sen. Roger Picard, and a final tally from the Paper Milk Bottle campaign in local businesses chaired by Bill Schneck and Gary Lapierre, Carcifero can only be hopeful for a last minute surge pushing the Milk Fund to over the more than $55,000 raised last year.
That fact won’t stop the Milk Fund from starting all over again next year to do the best it can in an ever changing economic environment, according to Carcifero.
“I can’t say I’m disappointed with what we raised, I can’t,” Carcifero said.
“I always feel every dollar raised goes to buying milk, so the Milk Fund serves people,” Carcifero explained.
The Milk Fund was founded in 1932 by the Woonsocket Day Nursery– a predecessor of Community Care Alliance—and the Woonsocket Call.