PROVIDENCE – When he decided to
put the restaurant’s historic 1954 neon sign up for auction to support the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, Olneyville New York System Inc. owner Greg Stevens did not know what response from the community he would see.
As he watched online the numbers for the sign go up and up, he both became more pleasantly surprised and excited. Now, the food bank will receive a good boost in its efforts to feed the needy.
Olneyville New York System’s sign auction, which concluded Wednesday evening, brought in $27,092 – all benefiting the food bank. The auction listed six items, five pieces of the original “New York System” sign, which was supposed to be refurbished but was beyond repair, and a single framed “Hot Weiners” sign.
“[The sign] was sitting around and I was thinking ‘what do I do with this,’ ” Stevens told Providence Business News on Thursday about the initial idea of putting the sign up for auction. “Let’s put it out to the public. They can enjoy it. People love this type of memorabilia, ‘Man Cave’ wall hangings, things like that ... and let’s make good use of this to a worthy cause.”
Stevens said he, along with his sister Stephanie Stevens-Turini, and Olneyville New York System employees were all surprised as the auction progressed, seeing more and more people put down bids for the sign. “We were pretty much in shock, to be honest,” he said.
Stevens also said he’s appreciative of a community that helped the famed local restaurant build its reputation over many decades.
Moving forward, Stevens said the auction’s success in raising funds for the food bank will result in another “couple more items” to be announced “soon” that will be put up for auction to support the community.
Lisa Roth Blackman, the food bank's chief philanthropy officer, told PBN in an emailed statement that the nonprofit loves donors such as Stevens who use their resources and connections to benefit the food bank in “fun and innovative ways.” “These funds will support our work of distributing nutritious food to the 80,000 Rhode Islanders a month who visit our member agencies. We’re so grateful,” Blackman said.
(UPDATE: Comment from Rhode Island Community Food Bank added in 8th paragraph.)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
