McGee Toyota to donate $40,000 to Webster parish

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent

When Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Webster needed a new floor in the parish hall, parishioner Melissa Orlowski asked her boss at McGee Toyota of Dudley for help.

You could say that Ms. Orlowski and the parish were floored by the generous response.

Ms. Orlowski, business manager at McGee Toyota, asked for $2,000, but general manager Mike Boccanfuso said he would donate $40,000. That donation will pay for nearly the entire cost to replace the original, 4,000-square foot vinyl tile floor in the 23-year-old parish hall with an epoxy floor.

“We were very, very excited,” said Ray Guerin, financial administrator for the parish. “When you have a project like this that comes up that you have to address, to have someone come forward like this, it once again reinforces that we trust in God. He always provides.”

“This isn’t a means to try to sell anything,” Mr. Boccanfuso said. “I told Father (Adam Reid, Sacred Heart pastor) and Mr. Guerin that we’re doing it because we can and because it feels good. It’s not a billboard for McGee, it was the right thing to do at the right time.”

Mr. Buccanfuso and his wife are parishioners at St. Rocco’s Parish in Johnston, R.I., and their two sons attend St. Rocco’s School. He said a number of McGee employees are Sacred Heart of Jesus parishioners.

“I found him seemingly very desirous of seeking to help entities in the community,” Father Reid said. “He did not come across as having a polished sales presentation type demeanor, but rather a very genuine personable individual who expressed a desire to aid us.”

Beginning in April, for every car sold at McGee, $50 will be donated to Sacred Heart of Jesus until the $40,000 goal is reached. McGee will issue a check each month and Mr. Boccanfuso expects the goal to be reached within six months because this is his dealership’s busiest time of the year.
 
“I see it as yet another expression of God’s generosity and goodness,” Father Reid said. “I am extremely grateful for this additional blessing and thankful for the willingness of McGee Toyota to once again look to fill the needs within the local community.”

“I think it’s a beautiful thing,” Ms. Orlowski said. “It made my heart very happy. Father Adam is wonderful. If there’s any church that deserves this, it’s them. They do wonderful things for the community and that’s what we’re all about here at McGee. So we like to help when we can.”

Ms. Orlowski and McGee Toyota also organized Thanksgiving food drives for the Webster-Dudley chapter of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which meets occasionally in the parish hall and whose food pantry is located in Sacred Heart’s ministry building. In addition, McGee Toyota has teamed up with the Dudley Fire Department to distribute Toys for Tots and has hosted pet adoption events with Second Chance Animal Services in East Brookfield.
McGee has paid for jerseys and equipment for youth athletic teams and even donated cars to worthy causes.

“Mikey is very generous when it comes to our community,” Ms. Orlowski said. “I don’t think he’s ever told me no when I wanted to donate to something.”

The floor needed to be replaced because some vinyl tiles had broken and moisture had begun to penetrate the tile floor, which was laid upon concrete. Mold was a potential problem.

Installing an epoxy floor will eliminate the need to maintain it by stripping and waxing it.

Garage Floor Coating of Boston, which has done work at St. Mary Parish in Shrewsbury, completed the floor on May 8, ahead of schedule.

Mr. Guerin said McGee’s donation will cover nearly all of the cost of the new floor and that the remaining $4,000 would be paid for from the parish’s long term savings account.

The parish hall is used for dinners and most recently for Light of the World Retreats. A chapel is located in a room off the parish hall. The All Saints Academy and the Oxford travel league play basketball at the gymnasium adjacent to the parish hall. In January, insurance paid for the removal of moisture from the gym’s hardwood floor. No long term damage was done.

Mr. Guerin said the parish plans to erect a plaque in the parish hall entryway recognizing McGee as the exclusive corporate donor for the new floor and that the parish will spread the word on the parish whiteboard, Flocknotes and other social media. A banner recognizing the donation will be hung in the gym during the next basketball season.

Mr. Guerin has been the financial administrator since 2018 and was chairman of the parish finance committee for eight years prior to that. He said the parish has received other generous donations over the years.

In January, the parish received a donation of nearly $200,000 in Apple stock that was transferred into the parish’s long term savings account. About 20 years ago, a family donated a house on Webster Lake that the parish sold and banked the proceeds.

A donation from a parishioner will fund nearly half of the $80,000 construction cost of two bathrooms at the parish and the rest will be paid for out of long term savings and money received from Legacy of Hope.

“There are some very generous folks here,” Mr. Guerin said. “It’s not a big money parish, but there are some very generous folks here.”

The sale of the former St. Anne Elementary School last year paid for a major repair to the church roof.