Chugging along
Expectations for the city’s annual Milk Fund remain high as the radio auction turns in record amounts.
WOONSOCKET – The 86th annual Milk Fund Appeal has had fewer events during the month of December than it has had in past years but that isn’t stopping its loyal volunteers and supporters from keeping its tally of donations growing.
As of Wednesday, the Milk Fund stood at $22,100 thanks to a number of large donations, events held earlier this holiday season and the daily Milk Fund Auctions put on at WOON Radio 1240 AM each day on Coffee `An hosted by station owner Dave Richards, and the Saturday show hosted by Romeo Berthiaume.
The radio auction, in fact, has raised the most amount of money it ever has, Richards said on Wednesday as three additional auctions remained to be held through Saturday.
Following Wednesday morning’s auction program, WOON’s contribution to the Milk Fund stood at $6,514, Richards reported.
“Well obviously I’m delighted with what our Milk Fund Auction project has been doing because our committee has had a more successful auction even with the fewer Milk Fund events that were held,” Richt ards said.
And that will benefit the drive’s overall goal, he added. “We’re just r raising as much money as we can to help people through next year,” he said.
The Milk Fund, a charity intended to help meet the nutritional needs of disadvantaged local children, was founded in 1932 by the Woonsocket Child and Family Service, now the Community Care Alliance, and The Woonsocket Call. The fund issues vouchers to families in need that are redeemed at L’il General Convenience Stores for a steady supply of milk through course of the year. The Community Care Alliance oversees the distribution program.
In addition to the auction tally, this year’s Milk Fund drive has also benefited from the Milk Fund Race & Walk put on by The Gym LLC and the Savini Family in November, a final total of $900 this year, and the individual contributions that always come in such as those from organizations like the $1,000 check Richard Picard, a local Mason, brought in from the Royal Arch Chapter authorized by Pawtucket’s Chapter No. 4 of the Masons, and another $1,000 check from the Masons’ Holy Sepulcher Commandery No. 8, also out of Pawtucket. The RI Council of Masons subsequently sent along a contribution of $3,000 to the Milk Fund, Richards noted.
The direct contributions also included $5,000 from CVS Health, and just in on Wednesday, $1,000 from Navigant Credit Union, and $1,000 John Ward brought in from the Woonsocket Lions Club, Richards noted. The Woonsocket Teachers’ Guild also contributed a $1,000 check again this year.
There is another $5,227 contribution pending from a Legacy Trust set up to benefit the Milk Fund that will add to the overall Milk Fund tally today, Richards said. And former City Councilman Bill Schneck is once again running the Drive’s paper Milk Bottle campaign at L’il General Stores and other locations like Chan’s as he has done in years past. That funding will be added near the end of the campaign.
Milk Fund Chair Lisa M. Carcifero has been pleased that all of the work done to date has brought in funding to help local residents in need for the coming year.
That has occurred even while she is reorganizing the Milk Fund events to be scheduled next year.
“This year has been a reassess- ment year for events and we are rethinking how we go about raising money for the Milk Fund,” she said. Some of the events the drive put on in past just don’t work as well in the current environment where there are many organization’s seeking to hold fund raising events in December for their particular causes, she noted.
“We are going to do more planning for events and determine what are the best events to benefit the Milk Fund,” she said.
The Drive is also likely to hold some events earlier than December, as was the case with the Milk Fund Run Walk, and also after Christmas and before New Year’s.
Bugg’D Out BBQ of Woonsocket has signed on to hold a Soup for Supper Fundraiser at the Millrace event center at Market Square (the former Mulvey’s Hardware building) on Dec. 27 from 5 to 7:30 pm. The menu will include seven soups for participants to try for a ticket cost of $10, according to Carcifero. “It should be a nice event with people stopping by and having a bowl of soup to benefit the Milk Fund, she said.
The event will be held on a Wednesday evening, Carcifero noted.
In addition to WOON’s auction, WNRI Radio’s Roger Bouchard and personality Dave Dean have been taking bids on a breakfast with Roger and Dave at Barbara’s Place on North Main Street and also a dinner with Roger and Dave at River Falls Restaurant at Market Square on their WNRI morning program, according to Carcifero.
There will also be some final large checks that come in similar to the $1,000 turned over by Hunter Insurance and the Masons, she noted. “I think we are going to go right through to the end of the year,” Carcifero said of this year’s drive. In the end, she noted, all the money raised will go toward helping local families throughout the coming year.
On Friday, the WOON Radio auction will feature a special event thanks to station Production Manager Joe Callahan’s decision hold a mini-fundraiser of his own. Callahan promised he would get a buzz cut on the air he received $300 in donations for the Milk Fund.
The donations came in and topped the $300 mark and now Callahan will face his barber from Edge Barbers & Hair Salon on Pulaski Boulevard in Bellingham on Friday morning’s Coffee ‘An program.
Callahan said on Wednesday that he is ready to do his part and won’t back down. The person giving the largest donation, $40, was Paul Lavallee, who with his wife, Kathy, runs the Honey Shop on Park Avenue, and would have made the first cut, according to Callahan’s plan for getting trimmed.
“Paul works for UPS and won’t be able to to be there so his wife, Kathy, will be coming in,” he said.
The buzz cut should be an interesting moment for the show running from 8 am to 9 since Callahan is usually at the control board running the program. The cutting work will also be broadcast on the station’s live feed at WOONRadio.com and on its Facebook Live page, WOONRadio1240 on FaceBook.
Callahan said he committed to doing the haircut if $300 came in and more than that had been received by Wednesday.
“We went well over $300 so on Friday we’ll start the program with our Reindeer Giveaway and then do the buzz cut right away,” he said. Tune in to see it happen live.