Ode to Bob McCarthy
Ode to Bob McCarthy
Irish Christmas Fundraiser to continue under newly named foundation
ELLICOTTVILLE - The Rotary Club of Ellicottville Foundation for Youth and its affiliate, Family Support for Ellicottville are excited to announce that they are changing their name to “The Bob McCarthy Foundation”.
“As most of you know, this 501c3 charitable foundation is dedicated to acting as a bridge between families and supportive assistance while supporting youth in our community,” said Greg Cappelli, Foundation member. “With input from the community, the Board of the Foundation felt that the time is right to transition these two entities into a single foundation to focus more precisely on our mandate.”
This move to consolidate both under a single Foundation will not change their mandate, but will help streamline efforts and expand community involvement.
“The Foundation is not very old, but our roots come from two other support groups with a long history of assistance in Ellicottville,” explained Cappelli. The Rotary Foundation for Youth was chartered in 2005 to help fund a Youth Center at the Ellicottville Memorial Library. This center in the Holiday Valley auditorium has hosted numerous Youth programs in a wide array of disciplines. In 2008 a critical local support group, The Family Support Center at ECS closed. Simultaneously, the local Salvation Army folded that year as well. The Salvation Army local chapter had been working with The Family Support center for years. They were dedicated to helping families in the ECS school district working with many Cattaraugus County agencies.
With the hole created here, a number of local volunteers stepped forward to fill the void. In early 2009 a small group met with the Foundation for Youth Board to decide how to fill the void. At that point, the Family Support Affiliate was established under the Rotary Foundation for Youth. This affiliate provided an outlet for those willing to donate time, goods and money to this 501c3 organization.
“Our mission is to provide help and guidance to those in need, confidentially, while trying to structure help to be self-sustaining,” said Cappelli. “We commit to ensure that 100% of the donations that are made go back into the Ellicottville community without any administrative cost. As such ,we are a completely volunteer organization.”
Over the years in conjunction with the local Rotary Club, numerous fundraisers were conducted, many created by the “Mad” genius of the Voice of Ellicottville, Bob McCarthy. Bob, a long-term teacher of Special Ed students in Buffalo and a ski coach in Ellicottville, moved to Ellicottville, his winter home, after retirement. Bob’s fun fundraisers like Celtic Thunder, Americana Folk Art & Music Fair, Farm Fest, Snowboard Auction and many more continue to be that of local lore.
His most recognized event, Irish Christmas, was started to provide funding for Family Support’s “Santa’s Workshop”, helping families at Christmas. After his passing in June of 2016, the Foundation renamed this wonderful evening “Bob McCarthy’s Irish Christmas”. This event now provides the bulk of the funding for Family Support and bridged the Covid years with an online replacement.
“We are excited to announce that we will go back to a Live event at Ellicottville Brewing Company on Friday, December 9,” said Cappelli. “Some great changes are in the works to renew the event but the theme will remain the same in Bob’s honor, so stay tuned.”
Although this community is blessed with good fortune, many families struggle providing basic needs in the home. These difficulties put a strain on family finances, emotions, health and schedules. Therefore, families may require some extra patience and understanding while certain issues are worked through and hopefully healed. The Foundation focuses on identifying the needs through the school and other agencies in tune with the issues that families face. From this many varied programs are supported, including:
The local Ellicottville food pantry
Support for individual students to help level the playing field financially
Help for broken families
Support for families who cannot pay for heat, food or clothing
Support for seasonal workers to bridge the gap between jobs
Help for victims of acts of God and ongoing health issues
And many more
“Our only means of finance are from fundraisers, donation boxes in local businesses and individual donations,” explained Cappelli. “Your participation and donations at Irish Christmas make this happen.
“We are excited about this change and look forward to continued work in the community, and we stress the we want to reach out and invite your input and invite you to join us in our mission. We will provide further information once our transition is completed, but in the meantime, please feel free to contact anyone on our Board.”
To learn more about the Bob McCarthy Foundation and Bob McCarthy’s Irish Christmas, contact Greg Cappelli at 716-474-7832.