Steve Favulli, President of Box 4 Special Services, explains our operations to Benny Omid, Dunkin’ Donuts franchisee & Northeast Co-Chair of the Joy in Childhood Foundation
Box 4 Special Services is proud to announce that we have received a $10,000 grant award from the Joy in Childhood Foundation (the giving arm of Dunkin’ Donuts). This award will allow Box 4 to continue our services and to provide a better canteen and rehab service.
Dunkin’ Donuts, through their Joy In Childhood Foundation, announced in late October that it had awarded Box 4 a $10,000 grant to be put towards operational expenses and truck maintenance.
Box 4 is extremely proud to be the recipient of this grant award.
Box 4 Special Services is proud to announce a Chili Cook-Off benefiting Box 4 and Tedy’s Team!
WHEN: March 12th
WHERE: Pepe’s, 274 Franklin St., Worcester (next to the Franklin St. fire station)
TIME: 5 pm – 9 pm
COST: $20 for adults, $5 for kids under 10
By now, there are two Facebook Ads going around on Facebook and Instagram advertising the calendar. Why is a non-profit organization, that depends entirely on donations, spending money on ads?
Well, there’s a good reason for it.
Several weeks ago, a friend of one of our members passed word along about a giveaway for Facebook and ActionSprout were hosting for Facebook Ad credits for non-profits and causes. She put in an application for another local non-profit she is heavily involved with, the Friends of Newton Hill, and recommended we do the same. We promptly applied, and shared the information with our sister organizations.
Earlier this week on December 1st, both organizations received word that they were awarded ad credits.
Box 4 Special Services was awarded a total of $900 worth of ad credits, spread out in three, $300 awards for the next three months.
It is important to note that Box 4 Special Services will never pay for digital advertising using your donations! We are very proud of the entirely organic growth of our Facebook fans and Twitter followers, and we will NEVER pay for likes or follows.
For the immediate time being, there are two “sponsored posts” going around on Facebook and Instagram. The first is our original announcement about the calendar, dating back to November 6th, and to date it has reached over 12,700 people. (On a slightly embarrassing note, we do acknowledge the grammatical error on the first post, but we unfortunately cannot change it.)
The second one is a shared post from the Worcester Pulse, and has been removed as of December 17th.
These ads for the calendar will end on Christmas, and are the only Box 4 ads currently running. It is currently unknown what content will be sponsored in January and February, but it will likely go towards another fundraiser or fundraising initiative for Box 4.
From all of us at Box 4 Special Services, THANK YOU for your continued support!
Box 4 Special Services is proud to announce that the 2016 Smokin’ Hot Heroes Calendar – showcasing Worcester Fire’s own, is now for sale! Net Proceeds from calendar sales will benefit Box 4.
October 27, 2015 (Worcester, MA) – Box 4 Special Services is proud to announce our new website is finally up and running. After several weeks of hard work and sleepless nights to design, host, tweak, and perfect our new website, Box 4 is proud to announce that Worcesterbox4.org is now live!
Visitors to our new website can find more information about Box 4 than was previously available at our old website, including information about our History, Apparatus, Sponsors, the ever popular Scanner Feed (courtesy of Joe Tortorelli of ScanWorcester) and several other pages worth of updated information.
Also included in our new website is a PayPal Donation button. If you’ve ever looked at our old website and wondered how to donate, this option now exists for people like you to donate to our organization and allow us to continue our services. If your business would like to become a sponsor, this information is also available at our Donate page.
Additionally, if you have ever wanted to volunteer with us, you can now file a Membership Application with us online. All applicants are subject to background checks.
We have also added several features behind the scenes for our volunteer members – creating new systems and resources to ensure maximum efficiency of their time and effort.
Lastly, we want to hear your feedback! If you find something broken or have suggestions about our new site, let us know! Email Mike Amidon, the site’s webmaster, at webmaster@worcesterbox4.org
Ever wondered where Box 4 Special Services has been and what we’ve done? Click on the links below to open Google Maps showing where we have been over the years. Please note that these maps are a constant work in progress and unless noted otherwise, it is possible that there are missing items.
When Dunkin Donuts donated almost $300,000 to Box 4 Special Services more than two years ago to buy a canteen truck, president Steve Favulli and vice president Angelo Bengovio were thrilled, but put their foot down on one issue.
“We told them we weren’t painting the truck pink and orange,” Bongovio said, referring to the coffee chain’s ubiquitous logo. “It’s a fire truck. It’s red.”
Box 4 isn’t part of the fire department, but it serves firefighters in a unique way civilians may not realize is necessary. On board the vehicle are refrigerators, microwaves, an oven, stovetop, bathroom and plenty of storage space. Volunteers, mostly former public safety employees, respond to calls from local fire departments as far away as Lawrence and deliver water, hot drinks, food, and a place for firefighter to relieve themselves – none of which is a given during a lengthy emergency situation.
So far this year, Box 4 has responded to 34 calls. That is a sharp increase from the same time period last year, when the organization got 14 calls. Favulli said it is not a function of an increase in fires – it is an increase in awareness about the services Box 4 supplies.
“More and more people are realizing they have Box 4, they can call [us],” Favulli, a retired 32-year veteran of the Worcester Fire Department, said. “The word is getting out there.”
Even though departments are using Box 4 more often, the organization is technically homeless and looking for a place of its own. Right now, the canteen truck is parked on Worcester Emergency Medical Services property, and Favulli and Bongovio think they could expand the operation if a local businessman or company donated spare land or a building.
Favulli estimated the organization has about 10 reliable volunteers who are usually called in when a fire reaches its third alarm. His vice president thinks the organization might be able to attract more if it had its own building.
“Part of the problem with participation is we don’t have a home of our own,” said Bongovio, who served 28 years as a Worcester firefighter. “If you’re here all night, there’s no way to really rest.”
The original Box 4 was founded in 1921 when a group of local residents banded together to provide drinks and blankets to firefighters dealing with a serious fire on Main Street. Favulli said he would like to see Box 4 return to its roots, at least in terms of support from local business.
“A lot of influential businessmen in the city were in Box 4. It was all businesspeople who had the money to build it and support it,” Favulli said. “That’s why we keep saying there have to be some businesspeople out there who want to take this to the next level and help us.”
The organization already enjoys a long list of sponsors in addition to Dunkin Donuts. Polar Beverages and the 99 Restaurants provide water, Osterman Gas provides fuel, Calise Bread offers discounts on bread and Direnzo Towing provides towing services. In addition, a plethora of organizations provide financial support, including Hanover Insurance, the Leary Firefighters Foundation and Paul Davis Restoration.
Box 4 also draws support from public officials. Some of the funding for operations comes from donations from members of the firefighters’ union, and when Favulli and Bengovio sent out a message in 2012 inviting local politicians to come to the first meetings, ex-state Rep. John Fresolo, At-Large Councilor Kate Toomey and District 1 Councilor Tony Economou showed up to support the group. Economou in particular was singled out for connecting the group with Rob Branca from Dunkin Donuts, which kick-started Box 4’s mission.
“I found it a very worthwhile cause,” Economou said. “They’re struggling for nourishment, water, Gatorade – it doesn’t take long to dehydrate, especially in those conditions.”
Favulli said the donation to buy the larger canteen truck – Box 4 still has a smaller vehicle with fewer capabilities – helped the organization at a time when a group of people whose main experience was fighting fires was trying to start a charitable organization, mostly from scratch.
“We had no idea what to do,” Favulli said. “To be where we are in two years – everyone says they don’t understand the progress we’ve made.”
Box 4 Special Services would like to thank Tom Quinn and Worcester Mag for featuring us in the print edition. The full article can be found HERE
While we have appreciated all that Worcester EMS has done for us, the time has come for us to find a home of our own. We are limited to what we can store at WEMS’ garage, and we have reached a point where our storage space has become a limiting factor in our operational capability. By acquiring a home of our own, it would allow us to operate as a organization much more efficiently than what we currently have.
