SALAMANCA — Two groups of Salamanca youth have benefited from the generosity of Marino’s Pizzeria over the past few weeks. The business has assisted local Girl Scouts with their annual cookie sales, and has given choral students the incentive to interact with their classmates online, in an educational way.
Owner John Marino said it all began in mid-March when COVID-19 restrictions came into play. To protect the Girl Scouts of Western New York (GSWNY) and their communities from the coronavirus, door-to-door sales and cookie booths were suspended. As with other troops nationwide, this made it very difficult for members of local Troop No. 10120 to sell their cookies this year.
Troop leader Jennifer Whitcher Hawkins said GSWNY was forced to take the scouts out of the businesses, but the girls could still sell cookies through donations and deliver them to places such as police stations and hospitals.
“We gave a case of cookies to the (Cattaraugus County) sheriff’s department and we took a case to Save-A-Lot,” she said. “Another troop did the police station and fire department in Salamanca.”
According to Hawkins, the other option was to try to find a business that would either buy all the cookies to donate, or to sell them for the troop. Marino stepped up and offered to help the troop out by selling their cookies at his pizzeria.
“I took cases of cookies to Marino’s and I made signs. Then I started promoting the heck out of it on Facebook,” she said. “Marino’s has been amazing to work with and the fact that they even offered is just amazing in itself.”
Marino said he found out about the girls’ plight through the grapevine. He knew it was a big fundraiser for the Girl Scouts and how important the cookie sales are for the organization. Taking on the challenge, he offered to help the girls by selling their cookies to the customers at his pizzeria.
“They were selling OK, but not great, so I decided to ‘ante it up’ a little bit by dropping the price of the cookies from $5 a box to $2.50 a box,” he said. “Customers could buy as many boxes as they wanted and I would make up the difference.”
According to Marino, over 600 boxes of cookies have been sold from his pizzeria during the last six or seven weeks. He said they’ll probably be sold out soon.
“I honestly didn’t think we’d sell so many,” he said. “I was posting about the cookies on our Facebook page, so people could take advantage of this great savings at $2.50 a box. When customers ordered their food, they also had the opportunity to order cookies that we delivered right along with their order.”
Marino said it’s a good way for him to give back because most of the scouts’ families are patronizing his establishment year-round. He said the local customers in the community get a break on the cookies and the Girl Scouts make out.
Anyone interested in purchasing cookies at $5 a box, for themselves or as a donation, should contact Hawkins at jennhwkins@yahoo.com.
THE LOCAL pizzeria also came to the aid of Eric Kemnitzer, choral director at Salamanca High and Seneca Intermediate schools. He has been keeping his students in grades 6 through 12 connected through a weekly game he calls “Zoom That Tune,” which is similar to the once popular television quiz show of the 1970s, “Name That Tune.”
Kemnitzer said he started “Zoom That Tune” in late March once he realized the students weren’t going back to classes this school year, due to COVID-19 restrictions. With the curriculum altered and teaching done online, he has found this game as a good way to keep his students interacting with each other.
When he started the game, he was going to have pizza delivered, but then he thought there would be a lot of winners resulting in a lot of pizzas. He was wondering who would sponsor something like that and who better than a local pizzeria he uses all the time for choral events.
“I reached out to John (Marino) with the idea and he was totally for it. I was going to pay, but he definitely wanted to do this. He’s donating all the ‘Pizza Pie Prizes’ for the winners, and he’s doing it until the end of the school year,” he said. “He’s been excellent to work with. I couldn’t be happier because this has really set a precedent for the future of working together for the good of the students.”
Kemnitzer said he decided to do ‘Zoom That Tune’ every Wednesday where the students would come online to Zoom and participate in the quiz show. He usually runs the show, he has picked a couple of his students to host the game and pick the songs the last few weeks. He said it’s incentive-based, and the top three winners get pizza delivered to their house that day.
“It’s really about the kids getting together online and having fun, but I also want to make sure they stay connected through this difficult time,” he said. “I want to make sure they know we’re not forgetting about them and we’ve had a lot of great times.”
Past winners of “Zoom That Tune” are high school students Riley Brown, Tristan Duhan, Kierstyn Klahn, Madison Brown, Grace Hodara, Piper Dineen, Kylynn Herrick and Andrew Brodie. Winners from Seneca Intermediate include Zoe Jimerson, Wyatt Poling and John Holmes. This week’s student hosts are Aliyah “Aloha” Lee and Andrew Brodie. Riley Brown, Tristan Duhan and Kierstyn Klahn have hosted the game in past weeks.
Marino’s Pizzeria is located at 219 Broad St. Hours are currently 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. To order takeout or delivery, call (716) 945-5000. For more information, visit Marino’s Pizzeria on Facebook.
(Contact press reporter Deb Everts at salpressdeb@gmail.com)
