Marty Marran Benefit

Dear '72 Hawk 50th Reunion Committee Members:

At our last committee meeting, we discussed the unfortunate situation with classmate Marty Marran. There appeared to be interest among our group in reaching out to Marty to see how we might help him. To that end, Jack Phipps, Donato Russo, Paul Green, and I had lunch with Marty recently to learn more about his challenges.

Marty confirmed that he is homeless and facing several health problems. He rents a room in Providence, paying daily. His sources of income are a small monthly federal check and donations he earns playing the accordion outside of Yoleni's Greek restaurant, 292 Westminster Street, Providence (corner of Mathewson Street; the old Tilden Thurber building). Marty plays there 5-6 days a week from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

We spoke with Marty about immediate and long-term needs, specifically:

• Immediate: He needs $500 by the end of this month to meet financial obligations for overall living expenses, which is the focus of this GoFundMe effort.

• Long Term: We spoke with Marty about working with him to address a long-term, sustainable room/board situation based upon his current monthly income. This effort could include regular employment and reaching out to social service organizations for assistance. (Dan McCall has contacted a former URI fraternity brother who has some expertise in this area in Rhode Island. He has provided some information about social service organizations and is willing to help.) Marty’s health/dental is fully covered by Medicaid.

We're reaching out to 50th reunion committee members to ask you to donate to help Marty with his immediate need of raising $500 by December 31. If each committee member contributes $30/per person, we'll reach the $500 goal (of course, larger donations are welcome). (Please note: GoFundMe charges an admin fee per donation, which comes right out of the individual donations...that's how they make their money. I estimate that if we raise the $500 from 17 donations, the total GoFundMe fee will be approximately $25. So, would be great to raise a bit more to net $500 for Marty.)

Marty expressed his appreciation for the interest in his well-being and was touched by his classmates support.

Hope you can help Marty out. Thanks

Merry Christmas.

Jay Conway