To submit Business Bulletin announcements, click on image.
Volunteer Nomsa Ncube’s touching and compelling talk during the recent Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce annual dinner helped spur local businesses to dig deep in support of Somebody Cares New England.
Ncube, a volunteer with Somebody Cares New England, was accepting the Community Leadership Award during the Chamber’s 107th annual dinner in June. Chamber President and CEO Alex Eberhardt says Ncube’s talk and accompanying testimonials, brought an outpouring of support.
“Sally Cerasuolo and John Chemaly and some other really amazing people in the community started having an internal table conversation of how much they would really like to help Somebody Cares and continue the amazing work that they’re doing,” she explains.
Ncube last week accepted the $20,000 in contributions from Melissa J. Cerasuolo of Gold Leaf Fine Jewelry. Cerasuolo’s mother Sally, Gold Leaf Fine Jewelry founder and a former Chamber president, kicked off the giving when she and her husband Vin O’Rorke pledged $2,500 and challenged others to match. The challenge was immediately accepted by John Chemaly, senior vice president of corporate strategies at PrideStar Trinity EMS; John and Ellen Smith of Smith Motor Sales Mercedes Benz and former Rep. Brian S. Dempsey of Dempsey Associates, bringing the total raised to $10,000.
“During that night, they were just text messaging people, making phone calls, and were able to raise all of that money in the few hours of our annual dinner,” Eberhardt notes.
The generosity didn’t stop there.
Pentucket Bank CEO Jonathan H. Dowst, the 2022 recipient of Community Leadership Award, also spoke of the work of Somebody Cares New England and offered to match the first $10,000 raised, bringing the total to $20,000.
Mount Washington, Haverhill-based Somebody Cares New England works to alleviate hunger and homelessness. The unrestricted donation supports the organization’s food pantry and other programs of service, with the donors’ only guidance being that the money be used where the it is most needed.