LEOMINSTER — Metropolis Corridor employees just lately launched a enjoyable method to elevate cash for the Mayor’s Gas Fund by incorporating a New England staple via Flannel Shirt Fridays.
Locals, companies, and organizations are welcome to take part by carrying something they’ve in flannel on Fridays together with shirts, clothes, scarves, no matter, and donating $5 or $10 or extra to the Mayor’s Gas Fund. Donations will be dropped off to the mayor’s workplace in Metropolis Corridor; the fundraiser will run via the winter.
“It’s a enjoyable method to get folks engaged and lift cash,” Mayor Dean Mazzarella stated, noting that the primary week they did it final month Metropolis Corridor employees and a few native companies raised $300 by carrying flannel. “Folks can have enjoyable and do one thing that’s going to be useful, and this 12 months is actually going to be robust.”
The community-wide effort is a play on Informal Fridays, the place denims are usually worn to the workplace. Mazzarella prompt that members “put just a little signal out and let folks know what you’re doing,” which may also assist unfold the phrase in regards to the fundraiser.
Roots Pure Meals crew members donned flannel when Mazzarella stopped by the Crawford Road enterprise for his each day reside replace on Oct. 28 and the Boys & Ladies Membership of Fitchburg and Leominster posted a TikTok video that very same Friday showcasing smiling employees members in flannel prints.
Mazzarella stated they hatched the concept when considering “of a method to get folks concerned and engaged.”
And naturally, flannel retains you heat, so it’s a win-win, particularly as there are increasingly more mornings today with frost on the bottom and the chilly winter approaches.
“They’re trendy,” the mayor stated of the flannel shirts earlier than including that he purchased some extra final 12 months for his assortment and that he’s shocked when folks inform him they don’t have one.
“I assumed everybody had a flannel shirt, I assumed it was a prerequisite residing on this space,” he stated.
The mayor introduced the fundraiser with a Fb publish Oct. 27, which yielded dozens of reactions and several other feedback. One lady wrote “Depend me in!” whereas one other quipped “I earn a living from home…. Flannel underwear okay?”
All jokes apart, the Mayor’s Gas Fund is a crucial serving to hand for these struggling to pay their heating payments throughout the colder months. Tens of hundreds of {dollars} for the fund has been collected via the annual Competition of Timber, which launches at Metropolis Corridor Nov. 21, since each have been began in 2006 by Mazzarella.
Metropolis residents can apply for gas help from the start of November via April, or each time the fund is depleted, and obtain as much as $300 in help annually from the fund that offers out $30,000 complete on common per season.
Mazzarella stated they display candidates to verify the cash “will get to the proper folks” and that they take care of a number of native gas firms on to pay the payments. With the present worth of oil in space hovering across the $5.50 per gallon vary as of press time, he stated “this 12 months shall be much more troublesome” for folks — that they’re more than pleased to assist.
“This 12 months persons are going to be struggling,” Mazzarella said. “Meals, inflation, hire. It’s a means to assist folks get via the season.”
Metropolis Corridor employees hopes persons are gearing as much as take part in Flannel Shirt Fridays and shall be circling again with donations within the coming weeks. For extra data on this and the Mayor’s Gas Fund cease by Leominster Metropolis Corridor at 25 West St. downtown or name 978-534-7500.