Please Lend a Hand to Someone Who is CYY (and Much More)

John Holder is CYY! He's the owner of the Berwick General Store & Deli who you might remember made a huge contribution to Markathon last year. He recently lost his home in a fire and he could use some help.

As Markathon approached last year, John Holder reached out to me. He said that he didn't have a lot and recently took over and bought the Berwick General Store and Deli on Route 9 in Berwick. He told me he was gonna specialize in pizzas cause of his family food background, but they were going to do a lot more too and they do! Great breakfast sandwiches, lunch sandwiches even chili.

Anyways, John said, we're a small business and it's just me, but I'd like to do something to support Markathon. John came in with a very generous donation and also an offer that anyone who bought a pizza that week from his shop; a good amount of that money would go towards Markathon. What a kind gesture.

Here's a guy who's barely owned this place for a year wanting to donate money and more money to support the great Center for Grieving Children through Markathon.

It's a new business. A young owner. He's been getting by, and he still wanted to do all that for this benefit? There's many many business' out there that are very well off who could take part in charities or benefits and they don't. Here's a one person owned business, a store and deli - and he gave close to $1,000. That is unreal people.

I had a special plaque made up for John and his store for supporting Markathon last year and I'd been meaning to make it down to visit him to give it to him, but man oh man... that winter was crazy right??

Embarrassingly, I finally caught up with him at the store about a month ago. He was so psyched! I couldn't thank him enough. He gave me a slice of pizza and I ate it gladly cause it kicked ass and I enjoy the pizza foods!!

We talked about our Italian backgrounds (he was born there, I'm only half Italian and half Irish). We talked about trying to save our relatives recipes cause we can't lose that connection to our background or those great tastes. It was an awesome visit.

I got a message from a friend of John's this weekend that he had a fire in his place that he just moved into earlier this year. He was asleep on the couch and a couple walking by saw the smoke and banged on the door to alert him. This happened just this past Saturday. Sadly he lost his place, his truck, his motorcycle and sadly his cats. He lost it all. Luckily he and his son were okay.

Amazingly, he held onto one special thing. A year or so ago John's mother passed away and he held onto her car. He had lent it to a girl who worked for him recently cause hers was broken. She just returned it to him after the fire so John has a car thankfully. His place though and everything in it, is gone. He was left with nothing, but his mom's car and his store.

This is awful enough right? To add a little more "you gotta be kidding me" to the pot, John was rushed to the emergency room Sunday night for his gallbladder. Just this morning he had that operation and luckily it all went well.

There's so many people who need help and we hear from so many folks with amazing causes and benefits and we try to help best we can, but we can't always help everyone. This time it would be awesome if you could help this person out with anything you can do at all. This is a person according to a friend that, "sometimes he is almost too caring and gives at his own expense a lot of the time."

I've seen John's good heart in action myself and if this isn't someone to help out, I don't know who is my friends.

Again, anything is a help to someone who lost everything in their home. If you're in the area maybe bringing some extra business to his store, Berwick General Store and Deli and deli could be another way to help as well. Thank you!