On Wednesday April 27, the North End Friends of St. Francis House delivered $18,000 to the Homeless Shelter. “We are overwhelmed by the support of friends and family in the North End, although nothing in this wonderful neighborhood surprises me ” stated Friends co-founder John Romano We would like to name some of the businesses that donated baked goods or allowed us to put a can in their store: Mangia Mangia’s, Mike’s Pastry, Bova Bakery, Dr. Anthony Bova, Lyndell’s Bakery, Boston Common Coffee Shop (donated coffee), Joe Pace and Son, Maria’s Pastry, Contrada’s Coffee Shop, Hanover Smoke Shop, Green Cross Pharmacy, Hanover Wine & Spirits and the Salem Market.
A special thanks goes out to Anthony Virgilio of Old North Construction one of our Major Sponsors. Also, Mary and Frank Romano not only made and sold 280 of their world famous sandwiches but also baked 11 homemade Banana Breads as well. They are unbelievable! We also would like to thank everyone who donated items to our Flea Market, everyone who baked home made goodies and Janet G, Josie, Laurie and Nicholas for helping set up. We also want to thank Diane Armstrong who helped us tremendously both days. We would especially like to thank Lillian Ferullo and Maryann Tordiglione for all of their help both days running the bake sale, not only are they a great help but they made us laugh all day! I would also like to thank the Regional Review, Post Gazette, NorthEndWaterfront.com and Boston.com/My Town for their gracious support by running articles and free ads to help publicize the event. We would be remiss if we didn’t thank Carl Ameno & Clark Hazelwood from the Nazzaro Center and Ida Depasquale and the North End Seniors for the use of their club day.
The way we got to $18K is we actually raised $8257.37 and our anonymous donor rounded it off to $9k, then matched it. This is truly a neighborhood wide event, from kids buying baked goods to the NBSS students lining to buy lunch to all of the seniors coming by to buy some great treasurers, it is amazing! Both Schools pitched in – St. John’s ran aspecial Tag Day and the Eliot made a nice donation. Also the non-profit agencies like North End Against Drugs, Nazzaro Center, Knights of Columbus #1513 and the NEAA contributed as well. “God Bless everyone who helped us this year, we are already getting geared up for next year, stated Olivia Scimeca another co-founder of the event, along with Kathy Carangelo, our goal is $20,000.”
