In the spring of 2015, Housing Assistance Board Member Ron Winner convinced Marianne Sullivan to organize a drive for our Welcome Home Gift Basket Program.
“Ron has been a dear friend of our family for a long time,” explained Marianne, owner of Sullivan & Sullivan Auctioneers in Sandwich. “I know Housing Assistance was near and dear to his heart and when we moved our company from Boston to Sandwich, we were looking for an outlet for our community giving.”
And so Sullivan & Sullivan chose to support Housing Assistance’s work, beginning with that drive five years ago, donating basic home goods for shelter clients who were making the transition to permanent housing.
The company’s involvement quickly deepened as Marianne, her family, and her company joined Winner in cooking meals for clients at Housing Assistance’s Angel House shelter throughout the year. That has included organizing the annual holiday dinner held every December, complete with gifts for mothers and their children at the shelter. The best part of that dinner, Marianne said, is “watching the mothers and their kids open their gifts and at the end seeing how appreciative they are and knowing we really made their Christmas special.”
In recent years, Sullivan & Sulivan piggybacked on these hands-on acts of charity by serving as a sponsor for several Housing Assistance events, including our Quahog Challenge and Telethon for Hope.
“Housing is the first thing you need,” Marianne said of why it is important to support our work. “A lot of your clients are really going through some challenging times and we want to be there for them and make every step a little easier.”
This year, when the pandemic hit, Sullivan & Sullivan took its commitment of Housing Assistance a step further by signing on as an Annual Corporate Sponsor. “I see all of the great things Housing Assistance does and so we really decided to not give to a lot of different organizations, but to pool it into one organization and make a bigger impact by supporting housing this year,” Marianne said.
It’s just the latest example of how Sullivan & Sullivan has placed a priority on supporting our work because it knows how important housing is, not only to those we serve, but to our community.
Become a Housing Assistance Sponsor
If you own a business on Cape Cod, serving as an event sponsor or an annual corporate sponsor is the perfect way to show you believe housing is vital to strong families, strong neighborhoods, and a strong community.
To learn more about becoming a sponsor, contact Event and Resource Development Coordinator Deanna Bussiere at dbussiere@haconcapecod.org or at 508-771-5400, ext. 270.
