fbpx

The unsinkable Shooze Cruise!

Seventeen years ago, then-future St. Francis House Board Member Tim Nolan “invented” the Shooze Cruise as a way to raise critical funds for SFH programs and services and collect needed shoes for our guests, all while getting the next generation involved with our organization. Tim was also the founder of SFH’s Emerging Leaders, a group for young professionals who support our mission – and host the annual Shooze Cruise.

This year, we weren’t going to let the pandemic stand in our way.

After all, shoes matter when you’re out in the streets all day, and each year our guests count on the Shooze Cruise to restock our shelves.

So we re-envisioned the Shooze Cruise as a virtual event and Carrie Neff, our amazing Event Coordinator, dove right in to make it happen.

MC’d by Captain Tina and Captain Carrie, the good ship S.S. Virtual dropped virtual anchor on Wednesday, August 5th at 7 p.m. Over 250 attendees jammed from the comfort of their couches along with SixFox Whiskey and DJ Matthew B, and took a break from all that jamming to laugh along with comic Quinn Alexander Fontaine.

If you want to see a bit of what you missed, check out our highlights reel on YouTube:

We were blessed with “fair winds and following seas,” and the evening was a great success. We raised over $30,000 and collected 200 pairs of greatly needed and eagerly anticipated shoes.

Thank you to our wonderful corporate sponsors:

Captain Sponsors
BRIGHTSPHERE Investment Group, Statewide Cleaning Services, and Webster Bank

Commander Sponsor
Avalon Bay Communities

First Lieutenant Sponsors
East Boston Savings Bank, J.M. Services, LogMeIn, Mellick & Porter, RKD Group, Toshiba

And to our esteemed non-corporate First Lieutenant Sponsor, Tim Nolan! No words, Tim, for how much you’ve done for St. Francis House over the years.

In addition to attendees who sent in a brand new pair or two, many thanks also go out to our friends at shoes.com for their generous donation of shoes. (It’s not too late to donate a pair or two from our wishlist!)

 

And a special congratulations to Carrie Neff for getting the S.S. Virtual out onto the high seas of a virtual Boston Harbor, and back in port on perfect time!