Helping Hands and Happy Hearts

What do you do when your home town has an onslaught of bad press and low community morale? If you are Allan Bruckheim and Ernie Fiori, you step up to the plate and do something to turn it around.

For Bruckheim that meant bringing the community together to do good for people in Japan after the deadly tsunami there.

“In a community that has been lambasted with bad press over recent years, we need to remind ourselves and others that the large core of this community are good, kind, generous people. The town needed a cause that would bring us together to remind us of that and the need in Japan right now provided an obvious focus,” Bruckheim said.

Harrison has a large number of Japanese residents. Bruckheim, as a past president of the Harrison Rotary Club, initiated a class to help new Japanese immigrants integrate. When Bruckheim heard that the Japanese coordinator for that class, Harumi Yamano, was working with other Japanese residents to run a small tag sale to help victims of the Japanese disaster, he decided to get involved.

“I asked them ‘Why do a little thing when you can do something huge?’,” he said.

Bruckheim, who spent 14 years as a doctor in Harrison, moved to Florida a year ago. That did not diminish his love or concern for the town’s name and community’s morale, or his desire to jump in and help.

“I figured I could spend as many days as necessary working through the computer if I could get some point people involved in town to assist  the Japanese residents on-site,” he said.

Bruckheim found immediate enthusiasm for the project he dubbed "Helping Hands" and offers of help from key people in town, including Rotary Club members; Ada Angarano, president of the Harrison Chamber of Commerce; Councilwoman Marlane Amelio; and residents Anne Hall, Sara Bisbano and Andy Fraioli. These residents joined up with Bruckheim and Yamano and the other Japanese women involved, to turn the small tag sale into the "something huge" Bruckheim foresaw.

While Angarano, Hall and Amelio worked  to get the word out, Bisbano ensured schools passed on the tag sale information to parents, and Fraioli volunteered his company’s moving vans as well as his own labor to pick up furniture and goods for the sale in the days leading up to the event. They have had huge amounts of goods donated.

“The community is really showing their heart and generosity,” Bruckheim said. “We have been inundated with supplies and checks, and the response has been incredible, even before the event takes place. It’s wonderful to watch what this town is doing to help, and it’s a sign of  what this town is really all about.”

Ernie Fiori, a long-time resident, agrees with Bruckheim. Just like Bruckheim, Fiori felt that the bad actions of a very few has sent the wrong message about Harrison, and he also wanted to do something about it.

“We have had a run of bad publicity over the past few years that gave everyone the wrong idea about this town and I was just fed up with it,” Fiori said.

Fiori was motivated to do something  following an off-the-cuff comment from people in his industry.

“I meet with a group  for breakfast once a month. At the end of one breakfast we were  discussing where to hold the next meeting and a couple of  members laughed and said that it couldn’t be in Harrison because someone had stolen all the food,” Fiori recalled. “I really took that to heart. I love this town and I’m proud of the town and the people in it. I started thinking what I could do to turn that image around.”

Fiori decided to spearhead one of the largest class reunions the town has seen to celebrate the achievements and the people who represent the real Harrison. 

“This September we are bringing together the Harrison class that graduated 50 years ago. They include eight doctors, attorneys, publishers, educators, well-known authors and many others who have achieved a lot and done good things both here and all over the world,” Fiori explained.

In addition to a giant celebration of those who represent Harrison well, the group also plans to do something for the town to commemorate the event.

“We will be donating a gift to the town in the class’s name. Exactly what is still being discussed but we want to show how much this town means to us. People are coming from England, France and all over the United States. We resent the fact that a few locals did stupid things that have caught national attention. We want to show that they are not representative of what Harrison is all about,” Fiorisaid.

The overwhelming response to Bruckhelm’s and Fiori’s initiatives and the many other on-going Harrison community projects are examples of what Harrison is really about.

“We all love this town and we want to wave the Harrison flag,” Fiori said.

Bruckheim agrees, "This town is made up of wonderful, kind people and the generosity being shown right now shows what this community is really all about.”

The tag sale  will be held at the Veterans Memorial Building, 210 Halstead Ave, Sunday, March 27, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Check and cash donations are also welcome. Strong men and women are needed to assist in setting up the tag sale and anyone wanting to help is requested to show up at the Veterans Building  Sunday 8 a.m.-10 a.m.

The reunion of Harrison’s Class of 1961 will include graduates from years immediately before and after. For further details  go to http://mysite.verizon.net/hhs50threunion.