Past Events

Volunteer Appreciation Event

On Thursday, June 17th, Beverly Bootstraps Community Services celebrated our volunteers with an appreciation event at Lynch Park.  Many Beverly businesses got involved including Not Your Average Joe's, Cafe Salerno, Starbucks, Super Chicken, Captain Dusty's Ice Cream and more.

Despite the gloomy weather, the event was a real hit.  Over 60 volunteers attended and enjoyed great food, fun games, and various prizes, from restaurant gift certificates to show and museum tickets.

Beverly Bootstraps Community Services could not run without the help of our volunteers, and we are grateful for the time and effort that they give to this organization.   For more pictures, visit our Facebook page.

Joy Munoz, Michele Dubreuil, Lisa Willwerth, Suzanne Powers and Jackie Hersey

 

Beverly CAN!

At right, Briscoe Middle School's winning "Castle o' Cans" Sculpture on display at the Windover property at 134 Rantoul Street.

Kurt Anderson, a Beverly dad and 5th grade teacher at North Beverly Elementary School, came up with an idea to help fill the shelves at Beverly Bootstraps' food pantry with a program based on CANstruction. CANstruction is an event sponsored by professional architects who build 3D structures out of canned goods in communities across America and then the canned goods are donated to local food pantries.

11 teams, with help from Joe Zelloe of Zelloe + Weaver Architects and Jeff Tucker and Shelby Littlefield of Siemasko & Verbridge, gathered the food and created the can sculptures at venues around Beverly in April and May.  Three judges, including former Beverly Bootstraps board member Dick Barger, viewed each and proclaimed Briscoe Middle School's CANstruction to be the winner.

For more information and to view all the great scultptures, visit Beverly Main Streets.

 

Post Office Food Drive

Thank you to all Beverly Postal Workers for particpating in the 2010 'Stamp Out in Hunger' Food Drive.

The Beverly community donated 9,658 lbs. of food to the Tom Gifford Food Pantry here at Beverly Bootstraps Community Services.  We thank you all for your incredible kindness!

North Shore United Way matched up families from the Beverly Mother's Club to help us sort the food and stock our shelves.

 

Beverly Bootstraps Community Services thanks you for joining us this spring, where people went Greek for a Good Cause…Opa!

Opa! was a fun Greek-themed night of dinner and dancing at Angelica’s Restaurant in Middleton on Sunday, May 2, 2010. Proceeds from the event benefited the important work of Beverly Bootstraps Community Services.  As we celebrated Greek heritage, master of ceremonies Gary LaPierre, the "Voice of New England" for over 40 years, entertained the crowd.   Auctions and a raffle rounded out the evening.

A huge thank you to our sponsors Salem Five Charitable Foundation, Danversbank, EBSCO Publishing, Cedar's Mediterranean Foods, Dr. Demetri Rizos and Family, The Melden Family, GreekBoston.com, Daily Printing, and The Brown Family.

                                                        For more Opa! photos, please visit us on

                                                                      

 

Thank you Finz and the North Shore Roots Band!

We'd like to send out a big nod and thanks to North Shore Roots Band, David Murphy, Pat O'Keefe and FINZ Seafood Restaurant and Grill for a great night supporting Beverly Bootstraps Community Services.  And, thank you to all those who attended and supported the cause! 

Saturday evening's generous donors and sponsors included the following:

Prides Crossing Confections, The Leonhards Flower Shop, Sixty2, Tavern in the Square, Linda Ruzanski, Henry's Market , Bill Lynch, Paul Colahan, Boston Harbor Hotel and The Boston Park Plaza Hotel.

 

Thank you First Parish Church!

It was once again auction time at First Parish Church where they hosted their annual gala event to raise vital funds for the church and the church's mission to the services they provide the local and international community.

This year's auction theme was Children. Community. Family. in celebration of 200 years of First Parish Church Sunday School.  The auction was held in the sanctuary of the church at 6:30pm tickets were $10 and folks enjoyed a live and silent auction, hor d'oeuvres, 50/50 raffle, music and a cash bar.  The Church is located at 225 Cabot Street, Beverly. Auction Benefits both First Parish Church and Beverly Bootstraps Community Services.

 

What a great evening! 

A huge Bootstraps' Thank You to BevCam for filming the event on 02/08/10. Stay tuned to Channel 10 for the boardcast.  See a promo currently running on BevCam and YouTube.

 

We also thank Bass River Tennis Club for the use of their space to hold our event (photo at right).  

Nicole Baginski, Michael LaPierre, Jeff Goldberg, Gregg Luongo, Cate Arkins, Manny Barros, Ed LeDuc, Maureen LaPierre and Rares Petritoi

 

TV Diner’s Billy Costa served as Master of Ceremonies for a fun-filled evening featuring dueling chefs from some of Beverly's finest restaurants as they competed using ingredients such as Spam, Rice Krispies and canned Cream of Mushroom soup from the Tom Gifford Food Pantry.

 

Results of 2010 Bootstraps' Best Chef Competition:

Bootstraps' Best Chef:  Brenden Crocker (at left) of Brenden Crocker’s Wild Horse Cafe

Chef's Table's Choice: Stephen O'Connor of Harry’s 240

Food Critics Table's Choice:  Peter Capalbo of Tryst

 

 

 

 

Local bartenders also mixed it up in the Bootstraps Best Cocktail Competition hosted by Stoli Liquors. 

Results of Bootstraps' Best Cocktail Competition:

Bootstraps' Best Cocktail:  Blueberry Boot created by Katrina Jones of Mandrake Bar Bistro.

People's Choice Cocktail:  Thrifty Apple created by Sean Maher (at right with Billy Costa) of Tryst.

Watch this space for recipes of the winning entrees and cocktails!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine's Tea and Bubbly

Sunday, February 14, 2010:   Valentine's Tea and Bubbly at Mandrake, 252 Cabot Street in Beverly, from 3:00 - 5:00pm.  $25 cover charge.  A portion of the proceeds benefited Beverly Bootstraps Community Services.

 

 

Taste and Style:  An Evening of Food and Fun at Boots, Straps and Sub-Marinos

Thank you to those who joined us on Friday, December 18, 2009 for an evening of delicious foods, wine and desserts at Sub-Marinos plus a wonderful night of shopping right next door at Boots, Straps and More: Bargains for a Cause.

 

The night was very successful with over 90 people attending and donating a large amount of food to benefit the Tom Gifford Food Pantry.  Jackie & Mary enjoyed meeting new shoppers that evening and appreciate the community support.

 

 

Beverly Holiday Parade

Thank you for bringing your canned food for collection by the First Baptist Church Youth Group at the Holiday Parade on Sunday, November 29, 2009. 

We would also like to the thank the youth group for organizing the drive and collecting  the truck load of canned food in shopping carts along the route.

Don't forget to stop by the Boots, Straps and More: Bargains for a Cause to redeem your $2 coupon handed out at the parade. 

 

 

Santa's Visit

Parents brought their kids to visit Santa while they shopped for holiday bargains on Friday,December 4, 2009 at Boots, Straps and More:  Bargains for a Cause thrift store.  

Santa Claus took kids' gift requests from 4:30 - 6:00pm.

Election Day Food Drive

The Election Day Food Drive, held from 7am to 8pm at all Beverly pollling places on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 brought in 904 lbs of food.  Thank you to everyone who contributed!

 

Leadership Challenge Food Drive

Thank you to Senator Fred Berry and the many volunteers who participated in the Leadership Challenge Event Sunday, October 25, 2009!

As of Monday afternoon, we have recorded 1445.4 lbs of food received from this food drive.

Senator Fred Berry challenged community leaders to help him fill the six largest food pantries in the Second Essex Senate District.

The event benefited:

• Beverly Bootstraps
• River House
• Danvers People to People Food Pantry
• St. Joseph's in Salem
• The Salem Pantry
• Haven From Hunger in Peabody

 

 

Fill the Cart at Cargo Unlimited

Cargo Unlimited, located at 22-26 Union Street, Manchester, in conjunction with Bootstraps Community Services and The Open Door ran food drive in October and November 2009. 

The campaign, called "Fill the Cart, Fill the Window, Fill the Pantries" requested help from shoppers to fill the empty Crosby's Market shopping cart that was set up in Cargo Unlimited's front window with non-perishable food.  Once the cart was full, the next step was to fill the window with food for the food pantries.

For more information, or if you are interesting in hosting this event in the future, email Jackie Hersey or call 978-921-4710.

 

 

BEVERLY BOOTSTRAPS GOLF CLASSIC AT ESSEX COUNTY CLUB

            

Drive Away Hunger Golf ClassicBeverly Bootstraps' annual golf tournament was held at the Essex County Club in Manchester on Wednesday, September 16, 2009.

The weather cooperated and all the golfers had a challenging round of golf, followed by a first rate dinner, awards and a wine raffle.

Thank you to all the golfers, the Golf Committee, the staff at ECC and our many sponsors:

Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. American Renal Associates Appleseed's Beverly Cooperative Bank Beverly National Bank Brown Brothers Harriman Capital Hotel Management Colucci & Norman LLP Corporate Design Insurance Danversbank findingcolleges.com Free Lunch Design Galen Enterprise LLCGolf Outing Herter Associates Homeworx Hospice of the North Shore HP Hood

Therese and Kurt Melden Moynihan Lumber of Beverly NFS Leasing, Inc. North Shore Bank Northeast Health Systems The O'Neil Family OSRAM SYLVANIA Leslie Ray Insurance Agency Dr. Demetrius P. Rizos, The Medical Group, Inc. & Beverly Hospital Salem Five Charitable Foundation Sensitech Siemasko + Verbridge Sullivan & Worcester LLP Temkin Financial Group Zampell Companies

 

 

Back to School Bonanza

Thanks to local businesses, individuals, community groups, churches and schools this year's Back-to-School Program was 100% donated for the first time since the program's inception.  In these tough economic times Bootstraps recognizes and appreciates how the community steps up.

This year Bootstraps saw a 15% increase over last year totaling over 580 backpacks distributed to children.

Pictured left, Hannah, age 13- Homework Club graduate.

 

 

Summer Park Lunch Program

Our Summer Park Lunch Program is an 8-week outreach to local children who are at risk of going without a noon meal.  Bootstraps supplied seven parks, located in low-income neighborhoods, with nutritious lunches.  Volunteers made and delivered these lunches. A commitment of one day a week by volunteers was made to each park location over the 8 weeks.

                                5824 lunches were served this past summer

Lunches consisted of:

• Juice Boxes (100% Juice)
• Individually packaged snacks
• Granola bars
• Individually packaged cheese sticks
• Whole Fruits
• Individually packaged vegetables
• Individually packaged yogurts or Gogurts

 

Sweet Peas Garden

 

The Homework Club kids, with the help of one of our long-time Community Gardeners Sheila Ouellette, created container gardens and named it Sweet Peas. Thanks to a Friend of Beverly Bootstraps, all the gardening supplies were generously donated.

The kids were invested enough in their plots that harvested each week through the summer. They harvested radishes, spinach and lettuce - what tasty salads - with pea pods, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini and carrots to come.

They even donated some of their crop to the Food Pantry!

 

Youth Literacy

 

Each summer Beverly Bootstraps Community Services partners with the Beverly Recreation Department to deliver books to parks located in low-income neighborhoods. 

This summer we have had the great fortune to team up with local bookstores who are supplying us with brand new books to distribute. Bootstraps gave out over 700 books to youth this summer.

Boots, Straps & More Grand Reopening

The recent Grand Re-Opening of Boots, Straps & More:  Bargains for a Cause, the thrift store run by Beverly Bootstraps Community Services, was a great success. People enjoyed shopping in the larger space and were thrilled at the quality of the inventory.  In attendance at the ribbon cutting ceremony were Congressman John Tierney, Mayor Bill Scanlon, City Councilors Bill Coughlin, Wes Slate and Kevin Hobin. Beverly Bootstraps Community Services’ Executive Director, Sue Gabriel, and Board of Directors, Dick Barger, Tim Smith, Don Kelley, Therese Melden, Nicole Rives and Kristin Zampell joined co-Managers of Boots, Straps & More, Mary Clunan and Jackie Hersey to officially re-open the store on July 25, 2009, complete with its new name and logo.

Post Office Food Drive

The month of May started with a bang in the Bootstraps Food Pantry. We began with our large annual donation courtesy of the Post Office Food Drive. This year Beverly Bootstraps received 7927 lbs. of much needed food. The city of Beverly as a whole donated 20,745 lbs. which was split between three local organizations. Many thanks go out the local boy scouts who helped transport and sort this food. This event was essential at a time when food seems to fly off our shelves. The number of pantry visits remained high in May with 1578 bags of groceries being distributed.

 

 

Barn Dance

Beverly Bootstraps' spring fundraiser this year was a Barn Dance held on

Saturday, May 16, 2009 at the barn of one of our board members, Vicky West. 

Over 100 friends and supporters join us for dinner, drinks

and dancing to the music of The Fabulous Clams! 

Congratulations to Cindy Ross of Manchester who won our wine raffle!

Many thanks go out to the hardworking Barn Dance Committee who worked their boots off as well as to all who donated food and drinks to the event.  We hope you will visit these fine establishments or use their services:

The American BBQ	The Fabulous Clams
Timothy S. Hopkins Catering	Bertucci’s
Shaw’s Supermarket	Panera Bread
Stop & Shop	Depot Diner
Not Your Average Joe’s	Indigo
Capers Catering/Wenham Tea House	Rowand Fisheries, 2 Cabot Street, Beverly
Crosby's	Harrigan's Liquors, 505 Bay Road, South Hamilton
Beverly Golf and Tennis Club	Tastebud’s Gourmet Catering, 151 Hale Street, Beverly
Bliss	The Barn Dance Committee
The Fruitful Basket	Fanny and Hubert deLacvivier
Myopia Hunt Club	Debby and Tim Mckenna
Mandrake Bar Bistro	Christy and Tim Sheehan
Hungry Fox	Natalie and Bill Whelan
Costco	Vicky West and Brewster Lee

             

              

           Debby McKenna & Barbara Parker      Donna Crocker & Chris Dick                   Andrea Jones

"North Shore's 100"

 

Outreach Coordinator, Julie Murphy, was featured in a publication by the Salem Evening News entitled "North Shore's 100." This is a publication about the people who are making a difference every day on the North Shore. She certainly makes a difference for many people here at Bootstraps!

 

Walk for Hunger

Beverly Bootstraps sent a team of 12 staff and volunteers to walk in the Walk for Hunger in Boston, and walked a total of 115 miles.  The team rose over $1,700 this year for the cause.  Project Bread, also known as The Walk for Hunger in Boston, is a Massachusetts organization working to provide food for 400 emergency food programs, of which Beverly Bootstraps is just one, in 128 Massachusetts cities and towns. These programs served nearly 43.4 million emergency meals state-wide last year to people who had no other place to go.

PHOTO:  [back] Kyle Jamerson, Brandon Parker, Chase Goodwin, Jack Whelan, Colin Rossano, Greg Ezell, [front] Natalie Whelan, Marissa Gabriel, Sue Gabriel, Amy Murphy, Andrea Jones and Julie Murphy.

 

Community Hero

Peter Simonsen, long time Bootstraps board member, was honored with a Community Hero Award at this year's Red Cross Heroes Breakfast, held at the Danversport Yacht Club on March 26, 2009. Way to go, Peter!

 

PHOTO: Sue Gabriel, Donna Crocker, Peter Simonsen, Elizabeth Dick, Dick Barger, Cynthia Franklin

 

 

Bootstraps Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast

We had a wonderful time thanking our Volunteers on Saturday April 4, 2009. The First Baptist Church was, once again, very generous to lend us their space. 

Thank you to all the volunteers who attended.   Please visit our Facebook page for all the photos.

 

Pennies for Heat!

Cha Ching! Students of the Beverly Public Schools emptied their piggy banks and pockets to raise funds for the Gift of Heat Program.

Keeping famlies warm is a community event.

$914.84 was raised!  What an accomplishment by the students of the Beverly Public Schools.  These funds will go towards keeping kids and their families warm.  Thank you all for your warm support.

 

 

Ethical Electronics Recycling Event

Beverly Bootstraps hosted an Ethical Electronics Recycling Event by TOXTOUR on Saturday, January 24, 2009 where 26 people ethically recycled over 4,000 pounds of electronics!  Due to its popularity, this event may be repeated this fall!

Sad to say that the majority of the electronic waste collected for recycling in this country is actually exported to developing countries where it is crudely dismantled, placing workers, water supplies and the environment at risk. 

Our event was ethical in that nothing collected at our event will be incinerated, sent to a landfill, or dumped overseas.  Electronic items will be wiped clean of data and then reused, repaired for reuse, or ethically recycled by a BAN e-steward.  Thanks for your support!

 

The Adopt-A-Family Program

 

The Adopt-A-Family Program has been in existence for over 12 years, offering low-income families served by Beverly Bootstraps Community Services, Inc., gifts and clothing for their children during the holidays. 

On December 18, 2008, staff and volunteers distributed gifts, sweatshirts, children's pajamas, hats, mittens and scarves to over 200 families in need.

Thank you to our generous donors for bringing joy this holiday season!

 

 

Celebrity Bartender at Mandrake Bar & Bistro

Bootstraps staff and patrons of Mandrake had a fun time on December 16th as Celebrity Bartender, Mayor Scanlon, tended bar with all his tips going to the charity of his choice. He chose Beverly Bootstraps Community Services.  We danced to Barrence Whitfield and enjoyed the impromptu auction with all proceeds going to Bootstraps!

 

 

 

 

Endicott College

 

On December 5, 2008 Endicott’s Nadine Bolen, Dennis Monaco, and Jay Munroe teamed up with a host of Endicott’s young alumni to paint the classrooms of Beverly Bootstraps’ main office.  The Project was initiated by Endicott’s Young Alumni Council.

 

 

 

 

Beverly's Holiday Parade was a Success!

Thank you for marching with us! As Grand Marshall we were at the head of the parade.  We are grateful for the donations and The First Baptist Churches Youth Group.  They are making the box of Mac & Cheese famous!

  

Myopia Golf Classic

Beverly Bootstraps Charity Classic was held on 9/29/08 at Myopia Hunt Club.  It was a great success.  Thanks to the golfers who participated!

Also, thanks to everyone who purchased wine raffle tickets.  Our two lucky wine raffle winners walked away with 3 cases each of a wide variety of wines including the lead bottles worth over $200 each!

Our thanks to the Golf Committee and our tournament sponsors:

Choate Hall & Stewart LLP	Good Harbor Investments LLC
Aero Manufacturing	AMG Educational Consultants
Therese and Kurt Melden	Ipswich Mini-Storage
Appleseed's	Cathy MacPherson
OSRAM SYLVANIA	Beverly Cooperative Bank
PH Lawn Care	Beverly Hospital
Corporate Design Insurance	Elenita Lodge
Capital Hotel Management, LLC	The Martins Companies
Flagstar Bank	PFP Computers & Phones
Galen Enterprise LLC	Prides Crossing Confections
Goodwin Procter LLP	Leslie R. Ray Insurance Agency
The Lees	Temkin Financial Group
The Parkers	TRU Corporation
Sensitech	YMCA of the North Shore
Salem Five Charitable Foundation	The Cummings Foundation
The Whelans