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Helping Hands for Heroes is a special project that combines the efforts of a group of organizations for one common cause - to help our courageous veterans and their families who have been adversely affected by the war on terrorism. (read complete Mission Statement)
Three organizations originally came together to pledge the time and resources necessary to lay the groundwork for Helping Hands for Heroes. They are:
The BLUE KNIGHTS® is a non-profit fraternal organization consisting of active and retired law enforcement men & women who enjoy riding motorcycles.
Dennis Moschella is the current President of Blue Knights®, Massachusetts Chapter 18, and founder of the annual Blessing of the Wheels motorcycle event on Revere Beach.
Dennis is a former Deputy United States Marshal assigned to the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) and District of Massachusetts (Boston) from 1983-1987 and is retired from the Revere Police Department. A Vietnam Veteran (1969) with the United States Army, he is the past Commander of the Joseph Leon Mottolo V.F.W. Post 4524, Revere, MA.
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"The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands Inc" (www.theweberfoundation.com) is a non-profit public charity founded in October 2000. The foundation provides direct financial assistance to individuals and families facing life-threatening illnesses or other catastrophic situations. Our goal is to help as many people as possible and not limit the Foundation to a particular cause or specific illness. We help those who have fallen through the cracks and have nowhere else to turn.
Elizabeth Weber is the founder and President of The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands, Inc. In 1992, while serving as Contract Administrator for the City of Boston Law Department, Elizabeth found a powerful home-based business. She became an Independent UnFranchise® Owner with Market America, Inc. and successfully built an ongoing income in excess of one million dollars per year while helping many others achieve their financial success. With her new prosperity, Elizabeth’s passion for helping people in need who cannot help themselves has become a reality. Elizabeth has devoted her time, energy, and heart to “The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands Inc.” since she founded the charitable organization in October 2000. The foundation has given more than 100 grants totaling nearly $400,000. To date all administrative costs have been donated or underwritten, which enables us to ensure your donation goes directly to helping those in need. |
Homes for Our Troops (www.homesforourtroops.org) is an organization strongly committed to helping those who have selflessly given to their country and have returned home with serious disabilities and injuries. Homes for Our Troops assists injured veterans and their immediate families by building new or adapting existing homes for handicapped accessibility for these American heroes.
John Gonsalves, President, Homes for Our Troops, was in the construction field for 20 years prior to founding Homes for Our Troops; he became a licensed construction supervisor and also a registered home improvement contractor. Mr. Gonsalves has studied business and has also completed safety training with OSHA, and the Massachusetts Safety Council. He has extensive knowledge in all phases of construction.
As did with many of us, September 11th changed John’s life.
The need to help in some way gnawed at him. After the war began, he was watching the news when he witnessed a wounded soldier and thought, “What now? What will happen to this soldier?” He began researching the web for an organization in his field of construction, and homebuilding where he could volunteer his services. His search came up empty. It is then, John decided to create his own organization and within months he founded Homes for Our Troops.
Starting up the non profit organization was an area as far away from supervising construction projects as it gets. It’s been a trying experience, but so rewarding. The outpouring of generous citizens, at times is overwhelming. The veterans he met along the way have touched his heart. They are not only veterans, he is proud to call many of them, friend. John has dedicated himself to helping build specially adapted homes for disabled veterans, as long as there is a need.
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| In addition to Elizabeth Weber, Dennis Moschella, and John Gonsalves, the remaining menbers of the Executive Committee for Helping Hands for Heroes include: |
Patty Lamarre has been the Director of Administration for Massachusetts Senator Jarrett T. Barrios for the past three years. Previously, she worked in major Boston law firms for 25 years and also worked at Mass Development, the state’s economic development authority. She is currently serving as a member of the Executive, Community Relations, Sponsorship and Graphics Committees of Helping Hands for Heroes, which is devoted to helping our courageous veterans and their families who have been adversely affected by the war on terrorism. Patty recently became a member of the Anthony Picarello Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of liver disease and awareness of organ and tissue transplantation through research and education. She has been involved in several high-profile election campaigns in Massachusetts and is also a member of the Election & Outreach Committee. She previously served as an Executive Committee Member of the Joint Venture for Arthritis and also as a board member of the Catholic Youth Ministry in Chelsea. She resides in North Reading with her husband Gilbert and daughter Jillian.
Kelly Cannone has been as arts educator for more than 25 years. Throughout the last two decades she served on The Arts Advocate of RI, Dance Teachers Club of Connecticut, and was a Board member of the Warwick Consortium of the Arts and Humanities. In 1981 she founded and owned Dance Artistry, Inc. in Warwick, RI; Dancer Magazine called her studio “One of the four most successful studios in America”. She then started her own dance company, the Dance Artistry Dancers, a non-profit organization for ages seven to twenty, who perform all across the United States and have performed internationally in Copenhagen, Denmark, Minsk and Moscow, Russia. Kelly has an extensive background in establishing educational programs for preschoolers, special needs, drug awareness and self-defense. She is a renowned choreographer which includes working with the Miss Rhode Island Pageant and Market America’s Regional Convention. Her latest venture is writing motivational articles for children and has recently published a new book Aspiring Dreamz.
Kelly is currently serving on the Board of Directors for The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands, Inc. Kelly’s Better than Broadway charity dance show has brought New England dance studios together to share their talent and raise money for the foundation.
Gayle Winters is an accountant and has worked in the corporate sector for the last 17 years. Gayle and her husband Michael have been doing their own forms of charitable giving through homeless families and those in need for the past 14 years. They have personally taken care of more than 25 families during the holiday seasons and many other sick children at various times. They have expanded their giving and have incorporated their two children in the acts of giving and helping others. Gayle currently is a member of The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands, Inc. and most importantly, is an UnFranchise Owner with Market America which enables her with the time and resources to give of her time to help raise monies for others.
John Loughran was a business man/entrepreneur with a focus in wellness before coming on board for the Executive Committee with the Helping Hands for Heroes. Mr. Loughran has always had a great deal of respect and admiration for veterans of both past and current conflicts. Not being a veteran himself, Mr. Loughran recognized the Helping Hands for Heroes as being an incredible avenue where he could give back to the servicemen and servicewoman who make unimaginable sacrifices to grant us the freedoms that we as Americans so fully cherish. Mr. Loughran truly believes that as an average citizen, he has a duty to dedicate part of his life to the enhancement of soldiers’ lives assimilating back into a normal society post conflict.
Jean Licata Sacco and her husband Jerry Sacco are committee members of The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands, Inc. Due to an injury that left Jean’s son paralyzed, she had been looking for ways of giving back to people in need but more specifically looking for an organization with a deep spirit of giving and that didn’t spend the money it raised on overhead and salaries. The Weber Foundation proved to be exactly what she was looking for. Jean and Jerry are UnFranchise Owners with Market America; the same organization which enabled Elizabeth Weber to start The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands, Inc. In addition, Jerry has a sporting goods business, The Winthrop Pro Shop.
Alice Zinkevich worked for 40 years as an owner of an award winning hair salon on Cape Cod. She is now semi retired and has been a volunteer with The Weber Foundation since 1992. Alice recently won The Weber Foundation 2004 "Helping Hands Award". She is a member of the Sandwich Chamber of Commerce and has worked with non- profits focused in Central America. Alice now runs her own Product brokerage and Internet marketing company.
Sylvia Pierce of Gilford New Hampshire is currently the Public Relations Director as well as a member of the Executive Committee for The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands, Inc. She has been with the foundation for nearly 4 years. Sylvia spent the majority of her career as a sales and marketing representative for 3M Corporation and recently retired from her Advertising & Media Director position at a well-known New Hampshire Advertising Agency. Her experience in the Advertising & Marketing field has given the foundation a voice with regards to the promotion of the foundation. Over the past 20 years she has always involved herself in many non-profit organizations from Big Brother Big Sister, The Make-A-Wish Foundation and Catholic Charities. Sylvia is currently building a very successful Internet Marketing Company.
Deborah Jones has been involved with many aspects of The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands, Inc. Deborah has been an Event Director for the annual “Angels on Foot” Fun Walk/Road Race, a program designer for the annual Helping Hands Spring Ball, a Vice-Chair of The Weber Foundation Freedom Fund and currently serves on the Board of Directors and is the Clerk.
Deborah has an extensive background in sales and marketing and owns her own product brokerage and Internet marketing business with Market America. She has worked with the Florida State Attorney General’s office as an advisor and taught courses at Brevard Community College in Florida and at the Boston Center for Adult Education. Deborah’s most recent quest was her run for Massachusetts State Senate in the Second Essex and Middlesex Districts.
John Howard is currently the Executive Director of DonateWorks and the Director of Internet Marketing and Sales for the Cleaver Company, International. His “day” job since 1956 has been in the Information Services sector. He became involved with Online Systems in 1981 when he was influential in the startup of the Delphi Online Service. He then became the VP of Operations at the Village Group which developed the first online geographical communities and the first online communities of interest. In 1994 he started his own Internet development and consulting company, Future Focus Online.
Over this same number of years his love of books developed into his “night” job. He owned two bookstores, ran a mail-order rare book business, published a book collector’s newsletter (the Imaginative Investor) and owned two publishing companies, Black Orchid Books and Odyssey Publications.
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