On behalf of the Milford Youth Commission and staff, we would like to thank everyone who attended, donated and supported to make the 16th Annual Fundraiser successful, raising $5,000 for Youth Center programs! The event was held on Friday, September 11th 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 2026 Community Appreciation Awards were presented to Barbell 88 and longtime volunteer Brian Bell!
This year’s event started a little differently, with a moment of silence, in honor of the 25th anniversary of September 11th and for Sonia Benjamin, daughter of Carlos Benjamin, the Town Facility Director. Sonia passed away the day before the event after a courageous 10-year battle with cancer. Carlos and Sonia epitomized strength, kindness and perseverance. We are all mourning the loss of Sonia and our thoughts and prayers are with Carlos, Isabel, Ashley and Lilly. Rest in peace, Sonia.
The 2026 Individual Appreciation Award was awarded to Brian Bell. Unfortunately, Brian was unable to attend, but we still shared a few words about Brian and why he deserved the award! Brian has been a part of the Youth Center for almost 20 years! Brian is known for volunteering for our boxing program and is an exceptional instructor, teaching the children that boxing is not for the fight but for discipline. Brian was trained by Coach Pablo Ramos beginning in the Natick and Framingham area, with over 50 years or boxing experience and coaching. The goal of the program at the Center is to teach self-confidence, respect, and discipline with also a great physical work out. His personal hope is for our members see their progression from their hard work in the program! Since the completion of the renovation, from 2016 to present, Brian has volunteered over 150 hours for our boxing program alone, with hundreds of hours dedicated prior to the renovation as well! Many people may not know that Brian also dedicated months of his time prior to the renovation to help move all the supplies, equipment and furniture to either storage lockers or into our temporary location, with me. Frankly, the Director would not have been able to get the building emptied in time for the contractors to start without his help, which she communicated that she will forever be grateful for! Finally, we are excited to share that we will be dedicating the boxing room to Brian Bell at our first boxing program for the school year, this October! Thank you, Brian!
The 2026 Community Appreciation Award was awarded to Barbell 88! We chose Barbell 88 for this award due to our amazing community relationship with them over the last four years. Andre, Zack, and their entire community and team have gone above and beyond to show their support for the MYC in multiple different ways! It is truly amazing to see how they shop up to support their communities. For the last three years they held a large toy drive for the Holidays at their gym to help our Youth Center families, collecting an estimated $75,000 worth of gifts all together! In addition, they have also helped at our annual Thanksgiving event for our after-school program, donating over $3,000 over the last 4 years to allow us to purchase more food, which helps serve over 100 youth each year! Finally, in addition to supporting the MYC, Barbell 88 is also very passionate about supporting Uplifting Heroes, a nonprofit that empowers athletes with special needs through inclusive fitness, mentorship, and community engagement, all rooted at the Barbell 88 training facility.
We would also like to recognize State Representative Brian W. Murray who attended the event and/or gave out citations to the awardees, to our Board Members who helped to make the event a success, the Pub Kings, for allowing us to use their microphone and speaker for the awards and to the entire CraftRoots staff for your amazing hospitality (Congrats to Irene on her well-deserved retirement as well)! Thank you to our MYC staff (Joanna, Emily, Jen, David, Julya & Ally) and volunteers for all the help with the event too!
We would like to thank every individual, organization and/or business that contributed to this fundraiser with a monetary donation and/or raffle prize! Thank you to the following Milford Family Dental for their Silver Sponsorship donation of $250, Lanna Doirion, Al Correia, Barbara Faria, Kerry and Stephen Pepe, Brian Bell, Valerie Perez, Angelica Perez, Jasmine Jimenez, Kristen Savio, Brit Roy, and Janelle Provencher! Finally, we would like to thank The Ice Box Trailer, who will be donating 10% of all proceeds from the night!
Thank you to the following individuals and/or businesses who helped us complete 40 raffles, valued at over $7,500 worth of prizes and a door prize: The Ward Family, Craftroots Brewing, Boston Beer Co. (DogFish Head Brewery), Chuck Calagione, Darlene Dulude, John Dulude, Gail Jussaume, Christina Wiech, Target of Milford, Christine Crean, Barbell 88, Stienstra Family, Amazon, The Bibeau Family, Pam Goldman and Mike Gillis, The Gym Milford, New England Coffee, New England Steak & Seafood, Pretty, Nails, Scarlet Spa, Hopedale Pizza Market, Roses Corner, E-Z Way Car Wash, Chris Pilla, Jon Capece and Breeze Airways!
Finally, we would also like to thank former volunteer and current staff member, Julya Caldiera, who made an amazing speech at the event!