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Challenge issued for record-seeking can, bottle drive for Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial

April 21, 2005

Contact: Link McKie
(617) 373-8324
(781) 488-3178
(617) 373-8773 (fax)
l.mckie@neu.edu

WORCESTER, Mass. – The owner of a longtime Worcester restaurant has challenged more than 500 licensed establishments in the city to match his donation to a can and bottle collection campaign next week to raise money for establishment of Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park.

Jim Donoghue, owner of Tweed’s Pub Restaurant, 231 Grove St., contacted the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee this week to offer to donate all of his refundable bottles and cans to “The Worcester 6 Fire Fighters Challenge: Yes We ‘Can’ Bottle & Can Drive.”

Worcester firefighters will pick up all of Tweed’s returnable containers at 10 a.m. Monday, April 25, the day the can-and-bottle drive kicks off. The collection campaign is honoring the six firefighters who died in a fire Dec. 3, 1999, at Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. All proceeds are going to help pay for establishment of Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park.

“The firefighters have been very, very good to me, and very good to the city. They’re great guys,” Donoghue said. “I want to support them, and get everybody else involved from my industry.”

Donoghue founded Tweed’s 25 years ago at the Worcester location where it still stands, a stone’s throw from Worcester Fire Department headquarters and the site of Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park, bordering Salisbury Pond and Institute Park.

Tweed’s will donate a week’s worth of its refundable containers, about 50 to 60 cases, Donoghue said.

“I’m challenging all of my colleagues to do the same,” Donoghue said. “Like the firefighters, they’re great people too, and always willing to help a good cause like this one.”

The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee sent a letter this week to Worcester’s more than 500 liquor-pouring establishments and package stores, inviting them to meet Donoghue’s challenge.

Donoghue, former president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association and the owner of another Tweed’s on Route 9 in Westboro, said he also would promote the collection campaign on his restaurant’s large sign on Grove Street. The campaign’s goal is to collect 1 million cans and bottles, for two purposes: To raise at least $50,000 toward construction of Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park.

To establish a benchmark in the Guinness World Records for collecting the most cans and bottles in one week.

The collection drive will continue from Monday, April 25, through Saturday, April 30. Worcester firefighters are asking residents and businesses to collect and donate cans and bottles that week to benefit the memorial park.

Those interested in donating refundable containers can contact Worcester Fire Lt. Donald Courtney at (508) 831-0519 to arrange for firefighters to pick them up next week. Returnable cans and bottles also can be dropped off at any of Worcester’s 11 fire stations next week, or at The Five Cents Worth Redemption Center, 192 Harding St., Worcester.

The Worcester School Department has encouraged participation in the collection drive by all 21,000 Worcester public school students and their families. Other fire departments in Massachusetts and the Worcester Boys & Girls Club are joining Worcester firefighters and schoolchildren in organizing the collection campaign.

Andrew Dube and Richard Simard, owners of Five Cents Worth Redemption Center, will tally the redeemable containers collected and report the results to Guinness World Records. Guinness World Records will evaluate the validity and significance of the final tally before determining that an official world record has been set.

Courtney, who originated the idea for the can and bottle drive, said 1 million cans and bottles collected in a week could set a world record. More information about the campaign can be obtained at the Web site for Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park, http://www.fallen-heroes.org, or by calling Courtney at (508) 831-0519.

The locations of the Worcester fire stations accepting dropoffs of cans and bottles are 141 Grove St., 180 Southbridge St., 424 Park Ave., 41 Webster St., 267 Plantation St., 745 Grafton St., 19 Burncoat St., 1067 Pleasant St., 438 West Boylston St., 100 Providence St., and 80 McKeown Road.

Firefighters Paul A. Brotherton, Timothy P. Jackson, Jeremiah M. Lucey, James F. “Jay” Lyons III, Joseph T. McGuirk, and Lt. Thomas E. Spencer died during rescue operations in the Worcester Cold Storage building, off Route 290 near downtown Worcester. Their deaths marked the worst loss of firefighters’ lives in more than 20 years in a building fire in America, and the third worst fire in Massachusetts’ history.

Donations to the memorial can be made to Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial on the Web site, http://www.fallen-heroes.org, or by mail to Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial, 34 Glennie Street, Worcester, Mass. 01605.

NOTE TO EDITORS: News coverage is welcome at 10 a.m. Monday, April 25, at Tweed’s Pub Restaurant, 231 Grove St., Worcester, when Worcester firefighters will pick up Tweed’s donated cases of refundables for the collection campaign.

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Last modified: Apr 28, 2005, 14:20 EDT