Hampton Major Appliances
raises money for local charity
With the beginning of spring, there is nothing more seasonal then a barbecue. One Garden City family-owned business decided to make this springtime tradition into an event to help the community.
On April 13 from noon to 4 p.m., Hampton Major Appliances held a free barbecue and charity raffle for all of its customers and any members of the town who wanted to come out. All raffle tickets were $10 and all the money raised went to The Interfaith Nutrition Network (The INN), the largest soup kitchen on Long Island. The winner of the raffle took home a $5,000 Wolf Outdoor Grill and the first 100 raffle entries received a $25 Restaurant.com card.
“We’ve been here for over 30 years and weren’t really reaching out to the community,” said employee Elizabeth Ingraldi. “We started looking at different charities and people told us about The INN. We called the event coordinator and took tours and then asked if it would be okay to hold this event to raise money for them.”
In addition to the barbecue and raffle, WFAN sports radio brought the fan van by the store to play music for the customers enjoying themselves outside the appliance store.
Inside the store, the reason for the day’s festivities was illustrated as a 10-minute video of the charity everyone was donating money to was played on all the televisions in the store. The video explained that The INN is “so much more than just a soup kitchen.” The charity also has more than a dozen or more long-term shelters where people who don’t have homes live. The program, largely run by volunteers, generates over 5,500 meals per week in Long Island.
In addition to giving back to those who need it, the family business that has stood on Stewart Avenue for over three decades also wanted to thank all their customers who helped them sustain their business for so long.
“My grandfather helped start the business almost 70 years ago in other locations,” said Ingraldi. “There are so many people that are always coming back and are always loyal. We focus more on customer service and go out of our way to help our customers buy what they want and are fairly priced to suit their needs.”
While not everyone could take home the $5,000 grand prize, second place for the charity raffle took home two tickets to the Mets-Nationals game and third place took home a special goody bag from the store. In addition, any customer who checked in to the store received a free raffle ticket.
While the next event at Hampton doesn’t take place again until a private sale on May 14 and 15, a lunchtime networking event took place on Tuesday, April 9 with Food Network star Chef Eddy G from Coast to Coast Cuisine.
For more information about The INN, please visit www.the-inn.org.
