Shortly after the pandemic began, Felicia Moreira '01, MA '02 (at right of photo above,
and pictured with her family), started Project Gratitude 2020 with two friends ― Stacey
Webb from Vestal and Jody Zevan from Owego ― wanting to show appreciation for those
on the frontlines, specifically in the Southern Tier. The group sells yard signs saying
"thank you" to essential workers and their families.
How did the idea of Project Gratitude come about?
Just after quarantine started, I really wanted to find a way to help our local community.
I kept seeing stories about essential workers who continued to report to work each
day to make sure we could live our lives safely. I wanted to show gratitude to them
while making people smile during this new, unknown and unprecedented time.
I saw a story about Liam Marshall, a Georgetown University student, who lives in New Jersey and was selling yard signs thanking first responders and donating the money to a local charity. The idea resonated with me and I thought we could do this here in Binghamton. I quickly got my friends involved. We tweaked the concept to make it our own by adding a "Fill the Bucket" option [donation without a sign purchase] and the result was Project Gratitude 2020. [Marshall] and I met May 7 in New Jersey to exchange signs. We shared project ideas and continue to keep in touch.
How many yard signs have been sold to date? How long will you continue to sell them?
In less than three months, we've sold more than 500 signs. We plan to continue to
sell at least 750 signs, but we won't stop there if people keep purchasing them.
Twelve days after our launch, we made a $5,000 donation to the Food Bank of the Southern Tier. We've also raised $3,400 in our Fill The Bucket campaign. We did our first random act of kindness a few weeks ago where we provided lunch to more than 120 environmental services staff at all three Binghamton-area hospitals. To support local businesses, we purchased the meals from Food & Fire, Alexander's Café and Nezuntoz Café.
Our next donation recipient will be Meals on Wheels of Western Broome. We've partnered with Arctic Bear, a local HVAC company, which is giving signs to clients at service calls.
When you launched, what sort of response were you anticipating?
We knew we'd get amazing support from our circle of friends and family. We had a good
feeling about the mission and simplicity of the project so we thought it was possible
to get great support from the community. Being able to give a $5,000 donation after
less than two weeks was humbling. Our community really stepped up!
What impact has Project Gratitude made on the community?
I hope that we've made people smile when they've seen our signs. So many donors have
written kind notes back to us about how they love seeing the signs and they're so
appreciative of what we do for our community. Aside from brightening spirits, we're
happy to be able to make a monetary donation on behalf of all those who have purchased
a sign or filled the bucket. Many people have said they're happy that we could be
an avenue for them to make a donation to the local community.
What feedback have you received from essential workers?
It was an amazing experience to be able to hold our first random act of kindness providing
lunch to hospital staff. This population has been overlooked during the pandemic and was
beyond appreciative of what we did. We've also loved delivering the signs. All three
co-founders have young children and we take them out to help deliver. People have
loved seeing us pull up to put in their yard sign. President Harvey Stenger bought
a sign for his home as well as for some spots on campus.
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