Fundraising campaign aims to save ParadiseDate: 12/23/2014 CHICOPEE – After a fire wiped out a local couple’s home and livelihood, a former resident has stepped up to help.
A Thanksgiving night fire at Paradise Pizza, located at 67 Springfield St., not only closed the primary source of income for owner Atilgan Yanbul and his fianceé and manager Tulay Uzun, but also damaged their apartment, located on the building’s second floor.
Upon hearing of their holiday season plight, Matt Costigan decided to take to social media in an attempt to help.
Costigan, a former Chicopee resident now living in the greater Boston area, manages the Twitter handle @413Tweets, which he launched to help people connect following the June 1, 2011 tornado.
Years later, the handle has 6,500 followers and not only shares information about goings on in the local area, but has also helped raise funds for charities such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County, Boston Children's Hospital and the American Red Cross.
Now Costigan has turned his attention to helping Yanbul and Uzun.
“I have no personal connection to the owners of Paradise Pizza but had been a somewhat regular customer of theirs prior to moving out of the area. When I heard about the fire on Thanksgiving night, I felt badly and felt @413Tweets and Western Massachusetts could help theses people out,” he said. “It is important to help support small, local business, especially one located in a downtown area that does not get the traffic that areas like Memorial Drive in Chicopee and Riverdale Street in West Springfield [get].”
Costigan has been using his social media acumen to promote a GoFundMe campaign he launched with the intention of “getting them some cash flow to help rebuild” the pizza shop.
“I know there can often be delays in insurance money,” he explained. “Not to mention the huge loss of no business for several months. Also the fact that it happened on Thanksgiving, during the holiday season, I'm sure makes it even tougher to deal with.”
As of press time, Costigan admitted the campaign was off to a slow start, accumulating $101 of the $5,000 goal since Nov. 30. He acknowledged that during the holiday season, people’s charitable dollars are stretched, but stressed that even small donations can be a help.
“Even a couple bucks an add up fast with people power,” he said. “@413Tweets has over 6,500 followers; if they call gave $2, we would raise $13,000.”
Reminder Publications attempted to meet with Uzun for this story, but were not able to connect.
For more information on Costigan’s campaign, visit www.gofundme.com/ParadisePizzaFire or follow @413Tweets at https://twitter.com/413tweets.
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