CCHS, USO benefit from Smith & Wesson donation
Date: 3/29/2013
By G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.comSPRINGFIELD — Two Chicopee institutions are benefitting from a relationship with Smith & Wesson.
On March 26, Smith & Wesson President and CEO James Debney presented the culinary scholarship fund of Chicopee Comprehensive High School (CCHS) with a donation of $10,000 and the USO of Pioneer Valley with a $25,000.
The money was raised at the company's annual Big Game Dinner conducted earlier this year, which traditionally raises funds for local charities.
Debney said the 161-year-old company views its relationship with the Western Massachusetts community as a "partnership." He noted that the 14,000 employees of Smith & Wesson regularly donate their time to volunteer. Sixty-six employees helped make the annual dinner, Debney added, a success.
Norman Boucher, a culinary arts instructor at CCHS, said the high school and the iconic gun manufacturer have a relationship through his former employment at Smith & Wesson. Boucher had been the manager of the company's food service, he explained to
Reminder Publications. He has been able to give his students first-hand experience by having them work on the food for various company events.
Those events included the Big Game dinner at which the CCHS students helped prepare such dishes as smokes venison kielbasa, Main black bear pot roast and barbecued beaver.
Boucher said the scholarship was set up as a way to support the CCHS culinary program.
Ken Widelo, the director of Career and Technical Education at CCHS, added this was the second year Smith & Wesson had contributed to the fund. Scholarships are available to CCHS culinary arts students who are continuing their education by attending a college with a culinary program.
Widelo thanked Smith & Wesson for their "generous support."
David Jubinville, the president of USO of Pioneer Valley, said, "I'm definitely overwhelmed by the generous donations Smith & Wesson has given us over the past several years."
Jubinville said the contribution would support the programs the organization, which is housed at Westover Air Reserve Base, including a food pantry for the families of service men and women who are deployed overseas.
"Hosting a dinner if this scale requires support from many volunteers who spend long hours managing everything from logistics to food preparation. Tanks to their efforts, contributions from local vendors and the many hunters and sportsmen who contributed game donation, we were able to donate needed funds for two important local organizations. On behalf of Smith & Wesson, I would like to thank everyone who participated in this year's game dinner and we look forward to continuing the tradition next year," Debney said.
