Holiday Concert a Hot Ticket

In its new location, the Martin Institute of Stonehill College, The Charity Guild’s annual Holiday Concert packed the house and drew its largest crowd ever, more than 200. Titled "A Doo-Wop Holiday," the show featured vocalists Lynne Albanese, Lia Macrina and Nancy Gustafson — who produced the event. Among the musical high points were "One Fine Day" (Ms. Albanese), "Lipstick on Your Collar" (Ms. Gustafson) and "One Less Bell to Answer" (Ms. Macrina). The audience sang along to "Barbara Ann" before the intermission, and the second half spotlighted the United Brass Quintet with Vincent Macrina on trumpet. The concert netted more than $5,000 for the Guild.

Patty Hayes and Shay Mitchell at the Martin Institute.	Nancy Gustafson and fellow board member Suzanne O’Donnell.	Lynne Albanese was a featured vocalist.
Jean Williams and her husband, Lou, enjoying the concert.	Bob Gustafson performing "When," with an all-star backup band.

Photographs by Diane Prince

More photos here.

Small Servings

ALL ABOARD — Families who are clients of the Guild will again be treated to four educational Saturday morning trips to the Children’s Museum in Easton. These trips were made possible by a generous grant from HarborOne Credit Union, for the bus transportation. ...HONORING A FRIEND — Alice Morris Egan, an early supporter of the Guild, died on Dec. 10, and many donations were made to the Guild in her memory. More people also have been making gifts to the Guild to celebrate a birthday or some other happy occasion. ...PLAYING SANTA — Several hundred Charity Guild clients signed up at the Guild for Brockton’s annual citywide toy distribution and picked up free toys at the Shaw’s Center right before Christmas. ...ON BOARD — The Guild’s board of directors grew to 20 in February with the addition of Diane Prince and Marijo Martin (a returnee to the board).

Welcome Jason Lynch

Jason (Jay) Lynch, who just completed his degree requirements at Stonehill College, is The Charity Guild’s new VISTA worker. He started work at the Guild on Feb. 10 and will work full time for the Guild for a year at no cost to us. He is our first VISTA member in recent memory, part of a national service program, Volunteers in Service to America, that was founded in 1965 to fight poverty.

Jay will be working mostly with Executive Director Michael Molyneux to build the capacity of the Guild in terms of volunteers, donations and recognition in the community. Michael and President Barbara Janelli considered a half-dozen applicants. Jay is from Lynbrook, on Long Island, just outside New York City. He was captain of the track and cross country teams at Stonehilll and won the college’s award for the student-athlete with the highest grade point average. He majored in English and also pursued Peace and Conflict Studies and Irish Studies. He was a summer intern at the University for Peace in Costa Rica and maintained a blog and YouTube channel there. He will receive a modest stipend from the government for living expenses and has found a place to live in South Easton. One of his leisure pursuits is boxing at the Cappiello Gym in Brockton.

The Feinstein Challenge

For the past 14 years, Alan Shawn Feinstein, a philanthropist from Cranston, R.I., has offered $1 million to hunger-fighting agencies in an unusual challenge. The money is divided among the agencies based on the amount of donations they receive in March and April. Donations can be monetary or food; a food item is valued at $1. (See feinsteinfoundation.org.) The challenge motivates donors. The Charity Guild has accepted the Feinstein challenge for many years, and last year friends of the Guild contributed $11,335 as well as 7,078 food items. If you received a letter along with this newsletter, please give it a good look. The Feinstein challenge is the subject.

A Volunteer Appreciation Lucheon was held on
December 20^th at the Cape Cod Café in Brockton.

Photograph by Barbara J. Janelli

A Night of Salsa, Swing and Spirit

Jean Philogene and Peri Jacoubs showed
some graceful moves on the dance floor...

But Harrison and Maria Miranda
danced away with first prize.
Photographs by Diane Prince

Some 250 friends and supporters of The Charity Guild filled the Shaw’s Center for the annual Harvest Celebration, featuring the final round of "Dancing With the Champions." In this ballroom dance event, held for the fourth time, five couples vied for the votes of the audience.

A mother-son pair from Brockton, Maria and Harrison Miranda, took top honors as they chose to dance the salsa. All the couples performed in preliminary rounds earlier in the month, one night of salsa and one night of swing, rated by a panel of judges. The Mirandas came into the gala, on Sept. 22, slightly behind in the standings, but they won over the crowd with an electrifying display of salsa flavored with hip-hop. Maria Miranda is working on a degree in polysonographic technology and volunteers at The Charity Guild; her son is a 2011 graduate of Brockton High School and works at Everett’s Auto Parts. Finishing second were Peri Jacoubs, vice principal of the Arnone School, and Jean Philogene, a retired educator, who won "Dancing With the Champions" with his wife, Christa, in 2008. After the competition, Mr. and Mrs. Philogene charmed the audience with a spontaneous bonus dance.

The atmosphere was festive as the Guild celebrated its 40th anniversary of serving Brockton and vicinity. Harvest decorations by Pat Dykeman and Stephanie Spencer turned the lobby into a vision of autumn. The tables of auction items were turned into a glittering display by Brenda Smith-Burke. The hall was brightened by green and white balloons by Diane Prince. Geri Creedon and Diane photographed the event. The traditional stacks of canned goods on the tables were a reminder of the more than 13,000 people served in the past year by the Guild’s food pantry. Nancy Gustafson, vice chairwoman of the Guild, oversaw the whole production.

A number of couples took a turn on the dance floor before the competition, dancing to the music provided by Marie and Tom Osterland. The Osterlands, who teach dance in Norwell, spent untold volunteer hours coaching the dancers for the fourth year in a row; they also recruited some of the competitors. The other couples were Ashley Anastasi and Troy Goodwin, Elisabeth Dorsey and Gene Cobb, and Mary Coutts and Daniel Tobin.

Speeches were kept to a minimum. Ashley Aka, a part-time Guild employee, spoke of her time as a volunteer and clients whose lives were changed. Tony O’Brien, a board member, urged the audience to support the Guild by contributing the cost of a grocery bag. So the gala was an inspiration, a fund-raiser, an entertaining show and a good party.

Small Servings

LIFE BEGINS AT 40? -- The Guild celebrated its 40th anniversary with a wonderful lunch at Tutto Bene (formerly Pasta Bene) on Sept. 8. One of the Charity Guild’s 17 founders - Jeanne Sullivan - was on hand. She is the mother of the current Guild chairwoman, Barbara Janelli ... GOBBLE, GOBBLE -- The Guild has ordered 200 turkeys to give to clients the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. ... SENIOR SERVICE -- Food deliveries to the homebound elderly have been expanded to 40 households in Brockton. The Yawkey Foundation recently donated $25,000 to the Guild for food aid to children and the elderly ... EARLY CHRISTMAS -- Clients have begun to sign up at the Guild for Brockton’s Annual Holiday Toy Distribution at the Shaw’s Center on Dec. 21. Anyone who would like to help out at the event can call Nicki Meade Draves at (508) 587-0815.

Harvest Gala 2011

Ashley Anastasi
on the dance floor

Brenda Smith-Burke, Patricia Lawton, Barbara
Cerce and daughter-in-law Debbie Cerce

Mayor Linda Balzotti and Jennifer Kovalich

Jackie DiMarzio, Florence McNamara
and Nancy Roberts

Peri Jacoubs was a winner
not only on the dance floor
but also in the raffle

Daughter-mother: Courtney Jansson
and Stephanie Spencer
Photographs by Diane Prince

Race Against Hunger!

Sunday, May 15, 2011 @ 5:00 p.m.

A year ago, The Charity Guild put on its first Race Against Hunger. It was a walk and run in D.W. Field Park in Brockton that attracted about 60 participants, many of them board members and their families.

But Nancy Gustafson, current vice chairwoman of The Guild’s board, had a vision of a citywide anti-hunger event. So The Guild invited five other food pantries in Brockton - all of which are active in the Brockton Area Hunger Network - to join in an expanded event. It will be on Sunday, May 15, and it is shifting to 5 p.m. to accommodate workers at various pantries who are attending church on Sunday morning or getting ready to open. Like last year, there will be a looping 3.5-mile run, a 2.2-mile walk and a 50-yard dash for kids.

Proceeds of the race will be divided evenly among the six pantries: The Charity Guild, Catholic Charities South, First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Full Gospel Tabernacle, Lincoln Congregational Church and the St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Edith Stein Church. Runners and walkers are invited to sign up sponsors who will make a donation in their honor to whichever food pantry they designate.

The race director is Dave Gorman, the longtime director of the Kids Road Races at D.W. Field Park. Mix104.1 / WBMX-FM will play tunes and give out ice-cream samples. Mayor Linda Balzotti will speak, and various food suppliers and other vendors will participate. Trophies will be awarded to the first-place male and female runners and the top male and female finishers under 18.

The entry fee is $15 if paid by May 7. After that it is $20, with registrations taken at the starting line on race day from 3:30 to 4:45 P.M. Participants can register in person at The Charity Guild or at The Guild’s newly redesigned website (at thecharityguild.org > Events > Race Against Hunger) where they can register and pay online or print out an entry blank and mail it in.

The race is formally known as the Mutual Bank Citywide Race Against Hunger in honor of the lead sponsor. Other major sponsors are the Bernardi Auto Group and the United Way of Greater Plymouth County. The Brockton 21st Century Economic Development Corporation has donated a Brockton Rox luxury box for 20 people, which will be raffled off. Christo’s restaurant in Brockton and the EMC Corporation also contributed raffle prizes. Get more information about the race from Michael Molyneux, executive director of The Charity Guild, at (781) 784-1928.

Mother's Day

Present and past board members enjoyed a wonderful afternoon, May 4th, participating in this year’s Mother’s Day project with 128 second graders at the Manthala George Elementary School in Brockton. The students worked on a card with art teacher, Pegge Garner, at the beginning of their art class. This card was included in the bag with their gifts from The Charity Guild. Students chose their bag from an assortment of bags of pretty spring colors and filled it with a bottle of hand sanitizer, foaming soap, magnetic note pad, and pocketbook size tissues for their Mom. Board members wrapped these gifts in bright paper and tied the bags with ribbon. Students were very excited to be giving these surprise gifts to their mothers on Mother’s Day and more than one child exclaimed, "This is the best day of the year!" Board members agree.

The Children's Museum in Easton

The Easton Children’s Museum has partnered with The Charity Guild for a second year to provide family fun and exploration for our clients. Families are transported from Brockton to the museum once a month for 6 months for a fun filled Saturday morning which will culminate in a pizza party in June. Twenty to thirty children and parents each visit enjoy themselves in a room full of dinosaurs, a hospital area with x-rays, an incubator, wheel chair and more, a puppet theater, trains and many more activities which captivate their imaginations. A special activity is always planned by the museum staff to incorporate the children’s creativity. "This is fun!" "Mom, come see this," and "Dad, look what I can do" were often heard throughout the visits, along with many "thank yous." Hopefully, this true community partnership will continue for many years to come.

The Feinstein Challenge to End Hunger

In March and April of this year, a multicolored tower of dinner plates could be seen on the Charity Guild Website, thecharityguild.org. They represented the progress of one of The Guild’s biggest fund-raising campaigns each year, The Feinstein Challenge.

Every year The Guild and other food providers annually take part in the Feinstein Foundation Campaign to Fight Hunger. Alan Shawn Feinstein, a philanthropist from Cranston, RI, divides $1 million among hunger-fighting agencies around the nation, as a partial match to the amount of money and food they bring in during March and April. The value of donated food packages is counted at $1 each. The agencies share in the $1 million in proportion to how much they raise. Last year 1,750 agencies and schools from all 50 states together raised $230 million.

The Guild this year raised $11,335 and took in 7,078 items of food, making a combined total of $18,413, as of May 4, slightly ahead of last year. Trinity Catholic Academy in Brockton contributed 1,066 food packages. Other generous collectors of food were the Mary E. Baker School, Arnone Elementary School and the Manthala George Jr. School, all in Brockton, Bridgewater State College, the Brockton Public Library, Bridgewater Savings Bank, the Boys and Girls Club of Brockton and the Children’s Museum in Easton. Among the generous cash donors were HarborOne Credit Union and Concord Foods, giving $500 each.

Our New Advisory Council

The Charity Guild has formed its first-ever Advisory Council in order to get a better sense of how effectively it is fulfilling its mission. The goal is to get input from Charity Guild clients and community members who represent diverse populations. The board is scheduled to meet twice a year starting this June.

Its first four members are women who live in Brockton. Two of them, Kristen Bouchaiba and Blanca Rosario, are current clients. Ms. Bouchaiba is a homemaker, and Ms. Rosario is a personal care attendant with Cerebral Palsy of Massachusetts. Another council member, Cecelia Hatch, is a longtime Guild volunteer who also has been a client. The fourth member, Filomena Veiga, is a financial professional with Prudential Insurance Company and a board member of the Cape Verdean Association in Brockton.