We at The Blue Room love a good grass roots cause and over our nineteen year history we’ve narrowed it down to three we shamelessly love the best and concentrate the most energy and funds. That’s not to say we don’t spread the love as much as possible because below our three teachers pets, are other charitable organizations we just can’t say no to year after year.
Lynn Shelter Association
Seven years ago we hooked up with Margie St. Paul (someone we used to work with through our efforts with Community Servings) who was taking on the Director’s role at the Lynn Shelter Association. She enlightened us to the fact that just $100 dollars would keep the doors of the shelter open on weekends when it was normally closed. How can you say no to that? So we decided to help. The Lynn Shelter concentrates a good portion of their efforts to transitional housing facilities that help families and individuals get back on their feet again. After a year of our Shelter Lunches at The Blue Room, Coldwell Banker agreed to be a corporate sponsor for the shelter and they match what we raise at our little holiday lunch. To date we’ve helped the shelter raise $75,000.
The Di Vilardi Fund for Patient Care at Tufts Medical Center
The crew up at the Breast Health Center at Tufts is bursting with positivity and delight. They take the fear and anxiety of the disease and turn it into empowerment. When we first met up with Cate, Liz and Dr. Graham we realized that while finding a cure is absolutely necessary, the people dealing with the disease today need support and funds too. Who can help you get compression sleeves when the insurance company won’t? Who gets you breast prosthesis and surgical bras when you’re homeless and recovering from a mastectomy? How do you get a wig, and a good one at that, if you’re going through chemo? And what if you just want to talk with a group about it and have a nice cup of coffee while you do it? The team at the Breast Health Center does it all and so far our efforts in the last four years have rounded up $25,000 for Cate, Liz and Dr. Graham to accomplish those awesome tasks for their patients that are dealing with cancer now.
McKinley School Garden to Lunch Project
Our friend Catherine has shed so much light on our lives through her work with children. In the last 7 years particularly while she’s been the Program Director at The McKinley Prep High School in the Fenway. It’s not like high school isn’t hard enough already, but imagine if yours didn’t even have a cafeteria? It started with a little something called “The Breakfast Club” where a group of students decided to start cooking breakfast for their classmates in the morning to now a full-scale attempt to get a school lunch program off the ground. Our start: get Stacey Daley (organic farmer extraordinaire) from Central Bottle and Nick and Liz from The Blue Room to start a vegetable garden in the Victory Garden at the Fenway. Thanks to the McKinley Prep High School teachers who procured the spot, we got to cleaning it up and in the spring we’ll be planting veggies for the kids to grow and then store until school starts. Fund raising planning is underway!
other organizations we support
Rodman Ride for Kids
Flavors of Fall
Taste of Cambridge
Community Servings
John Connolly Memorial
Children’s Village
New England Philharmonic
Wediko Children’s Services
The Angier School
Fenway Community Health Center
Mass Melanoma
Staley Foundation
Massachusetts Advocates for Children
United Way