City’s annual Milk Fund Appeal begins

WOONSOCKET – Events have already been held and the donations are coming in as the Milk Fund begins its 87th annual appeal, to provide local families in need a steady supply of milk through the coming year.

The campaign benefits from contributions provided by local businesses, individuals and civic organizations during its run, from the beginning of December through the end of the holiday season, to reach a tally approaching the previous year’s.

Milk Fund Chair Lisa Carcifero noted this week that two Milk Fund events, an Autumnfest 5k race put on by the Woonsocket Rotary Club Columbus Day weekend, and the Milk Fund Halloween run/walk sponsored by The Gym LLC on Diamond Hill Road, have already collected their contributions for the drive and will be turned over shortly. Some of the major contributors, such as CVS Health and the Masons, have also sent along their annual contributions to be tallied when the drive begins.

And just this past Monday, Dave Richards and his crew at WOON Radio kicked off the station’s annual Milk Fund radio auction that will run through Christmas Eve.

“It feels fantastic,” Carcifero said this week of the lead up to the Milk Fund’s start.

“There is a lot of energy and we are even looking to add some new events,” she said. “So we are really making some strides earlier than last year and looking to have some additional support,” Carcifero said.

The WOON Radio Auction has become one of the biggest individual contributors to the drive, if not the largest.

Last year, Richards’ band of staff and volunteers raised over $7,000 for the Milk Fund with the daily auctions held on air during the Coffee An’ program from 8 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday, and on Romeo Berthiaume’s Saturday Show program from 6 to 9 a.m.

The auction receives hundreds of donated gifts, specialty products, gift cards, memorabilia items and special offerings that are auctioned off to the highest bidder each day or over a period of days depending on their value and the level of interest they generate.

All of the proceeds go to raising the Milk Fund tally and allow many of the bidders to gain recognition for their organizations, or a special remembrance for loved ones in the process.

Included in the big item category going out to bid this

year will be a baseball signed by World Champion pitcher David Price, and Polar Express tickets donated by the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council.

Carcifero said WOON’s auction and all of the other groups, businesses, and individuals supporting the 86th annual appeal allowed the Milk Fund to put aside over $46,000, to support its delivery of milk to local families and seniors in need through the end of this year.

While joining Dave Richards on Monday’s auction opener, Carcifero read off a list of donations totaling $2,100 that had been given in the memory of the late N. David Bouley, a director of planning for the city, who died in March after a battle with cancer. Bouley’s family noted his wishes that instead of flowers, contributions be made to the Milk Fund. Bouley’s wife, Sue, turned over the contributions after they were received by the family. “I just read them all,” Car-

cifero said of her decision to honor Bouley’s choice during her appearance on the radio show.

The Milk Fund was founded in 1932 by the Woonsocket Child and Family Service, now the Community Care Alliance, and the Woonsocket Call to meet the needs of the city’s disadvantaged families.

As more support programs have cropped up over the years, the need for the Milk Fund as a key supplier of nutrition has diminished to a degree but not its ability to make a difference.

Carcifero said the Milk Fund is still able to put milk in the refrigerators of the city’s working poor families and as a result allows that cost to be directed to other needs. It also helps eligible seniors trying to make ends meet on fixed incomes.

The Community Care Alliance manages applications for the assistance and determines eligibility under set criteria and milk is in turn provided by Li’l General Stores through a voucher system.

The Milk Fund is a 501C(3) charity with all donations to the fund being tax-deductible.

“It helps the working poor,” Carcifero, a licensed social worker and executive director of the Woonsocket Substance Coalition, said.

“That is what sold me on the Milk Fund and makes me want to do this even more,” she said. “If we can offset the cost of milk, which is so expensive, then they will have a little money for something else,” she said.

The upcoming events benefiting the Milk Fund will include a Meet Santa Claus Breakfast at the St. Ambrose Church Hall in Lincoln from 9 a.m. to noon. Donations for the Milk Fund will be raised through a raffle to be held at the gathering.

And then on Dec. 7, Gary Lapierre, a longtime Milk Fund volunteer, and Steven Aucoin will put on a Beer & Dynamite night at Cercle Laurier at 165 East School Street on Dec. 7 from 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 per person and there will be music by DJ Buddy D, raffles and prizes through the night.

Carcifero said she is still working on having another Soup Night fundraiser this year and also a breakfast fundraiser. Gary Lapierre and Bill Schneck will also be distributing the paper Milk Bottle campaign, and plastic Milk Bottles for business counters and other locations are also going out.

By the end of the drive, Carcifero said she hopes to have enough support this year to at least reach last year’s final tally.

“I’m really hoping to reach that and surpass it. We always want to do a little bit more each year,” Carcifero said.