On behalf of the Milford Youth Commission and staff, we would like to thank everyone who attended, donated and supported to make the 13th Annual Fundraiser successful, raising $8,000 for Youth Center programs! The event was held on Friday, September 15th at CraftRoots Brewing from 6-9 PM and included great beer and food, live music, raffles and community awards! The Youth Commission selects businesses, individuals and/or organizations each year for our Community and Individual Appreciation Awards! The awardees are recognized for their dedication and support of the Youth Center! The 2023 Individual & Community Appreciation Awards were presented to Maddy and Sam Bonvino, Commonwealth Corporation and The MassHire Central Region Workforce Board!
The first two awards were awarded to Commonwealth Corporation and The MassHire Central Region Workforce Board! For those of you who are unaware, for the last three years the Milford Youth Center has been awarded a state contract to oversee a program called YouthWorks. YouthWorks is a state-funded youth employment program that helps teens and young adults develop the skills and experience needed to find and keep jobs. Participants take part in paid short-term work placements during the summer and/or school year at public, private, and nonprofit work sites. As part of the program, they receive training in core soft skills, practice professional behavior and learn how to work effectively with supervisors, co-workers, and customers at their work sites. They also learn how to take the next steps in their education and career pathways. This program is overseen by Commonwealth Corporation in partnership with The MassHire Central Region Workforce Board. Due to both of these agencies different Massachusetts areas are able to utilize these state funds to support youth as well as local businesses and organizations. Over the last three years, the Youth Center has been very fortunate to be awarded just over $200,000 to support youth summer employment and for the first time this year, an additional $100,000 to support full-year employment for youth in the Milford area. For the first two years, we had 18 youth each year in the program, and this summer we had 27 youth! This has not only helped the youth gain employment but it also helps us immensely, the employers! For a Youth Center, like ours, who has to fundraise for our programs, to have funding to support staffing, drastically helps us achieve and expand our programs. This program has also allowed us to help various other municipal departments and local businesses, which we are so proud of. This all would not be possible without Commonwealth Corporation and The MassHire Central Region Workforce Board. Thank you, Jeff Turgeon, of MassHire and Tasia Cerezo of Commonwealth Corp for attending the event to accept the awards on behalf of their organizations!
Our Individual Appreciation Awards were a complete surprise to the recipients! We were so excited and proud to recognize two individuals who have worked so hard behind the scenes helping make our amazing Milford YouthWorks Program in Milford actually run successfully while MYC fulltime staff are busy running a summer camp and after school program! The Bonvino sisters are those two amazing young women! I We have had the pleasure of knowing Maddy and Sam and their family for years, as they have utilized the Center with Milford Softball and have been such an integral part of the Center, pre and post renovation! One of many memories we have of the Bonvinos, is meeting Paul, Maddy and Sam on an early Saturday morning to knock down superficial walls in the basement and paint and put-up batting cages along with other members of the softball group! For not only their work ethic but also their willingness to help those in need made us know they would be the perfect fit for the program. What we didn’t realize was how dedicated they would be to help these young people over the last few years and also oversee how much the program would grow. They have dedicated the majority of their summers to recruit and interview youth, who have a variety of different barriers, and help them, often with their first job experience! In addition, they have been able to build even more relationships helping various other town departments and businesses with employments. This summer we had 11 different worksites for youth to be able to work at! Finally, they have worked to create even more learning opportunities by having outside professionals come in to help the youth know about their experiences and how they got to where they are now! It was our absolute honor to surprise and award Maddy and Sam Bonvino with their awards!
We would also like to recognize some special guests who attended the event and/or gave out citations to the awardees including State Representative Brian W. Murray and Select Board member Paul Mazzuchelli. Thank you to all our Board Members who attended and/or helped to make the event a success, including: Brendan Rickert, Stacy Darling, Steve Sousa, Chuck Calagione, Darlene Dulude, John Dulude, Ariea Bryan, Jason Vaz, Christine Crean, Gail Jussaume, Jonathan Capece and Bill Farrell!
We would like to thank every individual, organization and/or businesses that contributed to this fundraiser with a monetary donation and/or raffle prize! Thank you to the following individuals or businesses who made a monetary donation amounting to $2,000 of donations: CraftRoots Brewing ($500), John & Darlene Dulude ($300) and for preparing the majority of the raffle prize baskets, Ariea Bryan ($300), Butter’s House, LLC ($200), Consigli Design Co. ($100), Ken Rosa ($100), Braza & Mancini, Inc. ($100), Lena Pires ($100), Paul & Hilda Johnson ($100); Misc. donations: Donna Rowe, Dale Hava, New Horizons Family Dental, William & Colleen Allen, John Erickson, Joseph D. Early Jr., Worcester County District Attorney’s Office, Kim Mu-Chow & Lester Chow and Mary Pratt.
