Easter egg raffle to benefit toy drive for hospital
The Easter bunny meets Santa Claus, as the folks at Collegeville Italian Bakery Pizzeria Napoletana combine two holidays in the name of a good cause.
Proceeds from the iconic eatery and market’s annual Easter egg raffle for charity will benefit a toy drive for Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. A toy collection in April? “Toys inAprilhasn’t really been done before, so that’s why we decided to do something different,” noted Chip Gray, who organized the collection with Zenon Janicki of Collegeville Community Outreach.
Together, the men, both Collegeville residents, set up collection bins for new, unwrapped toys at participating businesses and organizations in the area, including Collegeville Italian Bakery Pizzeria Napolitana, Trappe Tavern, BerkshireHathaway in Collegeville and Lower Providence Police Department.
“We probably have 20 bins all over the area, as far as Chick-fil-A in Lower Nazareth,” Janicki said.
Steve Carcarey and wife Patrizia Carcarey, who own Collegeville Italian Bakery Pizzeria Napoletana, agreed to participate in the toy collection by setting up a collection box just inside the entrance and steps away from the huge imported chocolate egg they display as a raffle prize for charity every year.
And that’s where Christmas and Easter kind of came together at the bakery this time around.
By early afternoon on Thursday, more than 200 customers had a chance of winning the upscale DiGennaro egg, with tickets costing $1 each, or six for $5.
Last year, more than $1,200 was raised for Norristown football organizations in honor of Sanford “Man Man” Harling III, who died trying to save his father from a fire that consumed the family’s Norristown home.
“That story of the fire really hit home with us,” Steve Carcarey said. “How many 12-year-olds would do that? He had enough courage to go back into the burning house for his father, and it cost him his life.”
The egg, estimated to sell elsewhere for a few hundred dollars, is purchased by the couple as their contribution to the cause, and is never sold outright.
When the raffle is benefiting a family, the rafflewinner will typically end up donating the egg to the family as well, Patrizia Carcarey said.
“We’re fortunate enough to have healthy children, so we don’t know what these poor families at the children’s hospital are going through,” she said. “The toy drive is a little something special for them, so that’s why we decided to make it the beneficiary.”
The couple are fans of the charity work being done by broadcast personality Bob Kelly and wanted to support one of his causes, Steve Carcarey said.
“Bob does so much for everyone else. We wanted to help him this year with the toys going to the duPont Hospital.”
A friend of Gray’s who is a manger for Toys R Us has arranged for a tidy discount on the toys he and Janicki will purchase with the raffle proceeds to add to the collection.
“We’ll go on a shopping spree, and then we’ll have a trailer we can fill up to deliver the toys to the hospital,” Gray said.
Collegeville Italian Bakery Pizzeria Napoletana is located at 3846 Ridge Pike, Collegeville.
Proceeds fromthe iconic eatery andmarket’s annual Easter egg raffle for charitywill benefit a toy drive forNemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware.