NEXT MEETING
September 10, 7:00 pm, at Murphy's Taproom and Carriage House, 393 Rt. 101, in Bedford
We look forward to seeing you there.
**Please note that we don't meet in December. We are all hands on
deck at our Annual Christmas Tree Sale!**
The Bedford Men's Club recently was at the River Casino in Nashua for its annual Charity fundraising. The Club has been a part of the River Casino fundraising for the past 10 years. To date the club has raised over $70,000 through the River Casino to provide back to programs the help make Bedford a better place to live. The funds raised help to fund the club's annual scholarship program, school programs like Stand By Me, F.I.R.S.T. Robotics programs, and Destination Imagination. The BMC supports sports programs such as youth recreation league teams, the Bedford Barracudas, and the Bedford Bobcats, along with supporting our Fire and Police Departments.
The River Casino is a sports bar restaurant and charitable gaming facility looked at 53 High St in Nashua. They support numerous charitable groups who receive a portion of the gaming revenue. To date, the River Casino has given more than $2.7 million to various charitable organizations. For more info visit their website www.TheRiverCasino.com.
Pictured L to R: Bob McDonal of the River Casino. BMC members Chris Magay, Dante Damato, Bill Lange, Steve Lawlor, John Schneller and Bob Friedburg. Jim Rafferty of the River Casino.
Pictured are BMC President Dante D'Amato, John Schneller, and Rick Durand
The Bedford Men's club has grilled at the Peter Woodbury Elementary School's end-of-year Bar-B-Que for many years. Dante D'Amato, BMC President said, "The BMC loved helping out at the event. It's so much fun to see the looks on the faces of the fourth graders ready to move on to McKelvie."
Chelsea Correia, the PTG event coordinator, said, "Thank you so much to the Men's Club for grilling at our BBQ."
The Bedford Men's Club has made a donation to support the Bedford Destination Imagination trip to the Global Finals that begin on May 23 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Bedford schools will send to the competition 54 students in eight teams. Global Finals include 8,000 students from 48 states, ten Canadian provinces and 28 foreign countries. BMC President Dante D'Amato said, "The club has been proud to support Bedford DI teams for may years. We admire their hard work and many accomplishments, including sending so many teams to the Global Finals this year."
Bedford DI teams include students from grades three through ten. In the New Hampshire state competition, which was held at Bedford High School on April 7, nine Bedford teams earned the opportunity to proceed to the Global Finals, including two Bedford Teams who won first place in their events. The state finals brought the 104 best-scoring teams to face off during challenges in science, technology, engineering, visual arts, improvisation and service learning. "Bedford DI wants to thank the Bedford Men's Club for their on-going support for the past many years," said Beth Soederberg, DI team co-manager.
Destination Imagination is a leading-edge organization dedicated to teaching participants the essential skills of creativity, teamwork, and problem solving. To meet the critical educational need to teach students how to be world-class innovators and critical thinkers, Destination Imagination provides a number of extraordinary “hands-on and minds-on” experiences. Participants learn how to communicate their experiences to others. For more information, visit nh-di.org.
BMC President Dante D'Amato, Emily O'Brien, Lavinia Nash, Matt Helmke, Mitchel Soederberg
Bedford Men's Club President, Dante D'Amato, poses with members of the Stand by Me Student Committee. Front row: Isabela, Erica, Ava U., Maya, Ava D., Lauren, Carly, Kayla. Back row: Kenzy B., Bella, Stella, Dante D’Amato, Dylan, Hayden.
The Bedford Men's Club sponsored the opening speaker at the Ross A. Lurgio Middle School 2018 Stand by Me program. BMC President, Dante D'Amato, said, "The BMC has been proud to support the keynote speaker for many years. My own children attended Stand By Me and learned a lot about how to navigate the teenage years. It's gratifying to see so many young people on the student committee volunteering their time to help out with this great event.”
Stand by Me volunteer Karla Polce said, "We want to thank the Men's Club for their many years of sponsorship. We are grateful for their support for our workshops."
This year's Stand by Me event was held on May 18 at Southern New Hampshire University. The mission of Stand by Me is to provide teenagers and their parents with the opportunity and skills for improvement of understanding and communication, thereby building or enhancing trust and self-esteem. In doing so, they help parents and teenagers deal more effectively with the issues and concerns faced by today’s families. We believe that we accomplish this mission by offering a wide variety of interactive workshops administered by leading New England psychologists, educators and other professionals. For more information, visit www.sau25.net/standbyme.
The Bedford Men’s Club sponsored the EMT at the tenth annual Easter Egg Hunt Festival hosted by the Our Promise to Nicholas charitable foundation. The event was held on March 31 at the New Hampshire Sportsplex in Bedford. “Thank you so much for your donation,” OPTN board member and co-founder Heather Noyes Dainiak told BMC president Dante D’Amato. “The Men’s Club is proud to support this local event by sponsoring the on-site EMT.”
Established in 2009 as a nonprofit charitable foundation, Our Promise to Nicholas (OPTN) was founded by Chris and Heather Dainiak of Bedford after their son Nicholas was diagnosed with a rare, fatal neurological brain disease called Batten Disease. Nicholas’ parents promised him that they would work tirelessly to find a cure for this little known disease. OPTN has hosted dozens of fundraisers and events to champion the mission to cure Batten Disease. An estimated two to four children out of 100,000 in the United States are affected with this debilitating disease. This disease triggers seizures, blindness and immobility causing children to die between the ages of eight and twelve. For more information, see ourpromisetonicholas.com.
BMC president Dante D’Amato (center), and OPTN board members and co-founders Chris (left) and Heather Heather Dainiak (right), with a photo of their son, Nicholas, who lost his battle with Batten Disease in 2014.
2018 Town Council and School Board Candidate Debates
The Bedford Men’s Club has been hosting live candidate forums for many years and enjoys providing an opportunity for the candidates to answer questions that are important to the voters of Bedford. The Bedford Men's Club Town Council Forum was held February 15, 2018 and the Bedford Men's Club School Board Forum was held March 6, 2018. Both events took place at the BCTV studios and council chambers.
The live events were hosted by BMC President Dante D'Amato and were recorded for rebroadcast on BCTV. Links for On-Demand viewing of these events are below.
Bedford Men's Club Vice President Bob Friedburg (back right) stands with members of the Bedford Tech Tonix robotics team.
The Bedford Men’s Club is proud to support the Bedford Tech Tonix robotics team. In 2016, the club donated funds to purchase their playing field. In 2017, the Bedford Men's Club repeated their support with a donation that was used to buy components to construct this year's robot challenge.
The program was founded by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, who is also a Bedford resident, in order to help students learn about the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math through hands-on learning and interdisciplinary experience in the field of robotics. It also provides an opportunity for group members to learn skills beyond STEM including marketing, fundraising, and team building.
On Saturday, September 23, 2017, Bedford’s annual Olde Towne Day took place on a beautiful early fall day. One of the most popular spots at the event was the bounce house, sponsored by the Bedford Men’s Club.
Dante D’Amato, BMC President, said, “The Bedford Men’s Club has enjoyed hosting the bounce house at Olde Towne Day for many years. I want to thank all of the members who’ve helped, especially Bill Burns who organized our exhibit.”
Olde Towne Day is an annual Bedford event that consists of fun events with local organizations, businesses, arts and craft booths, food, music, and kids activities.
The Bedford Men's Club members Bill Burns, President Dante D'Amato,
and Tom Green, Sr.
The Bedford Men's Club sponsored the Friends of Aine 2017 Kid's Try-athlon. From left to right: Event volunteers Lauren Turner, Sue Turner (who call themselves "The Outlaws") and BMC President Dante D'Amato.
The Bedford Men's Club sponsored the Friends of Aine 2017 Kid's Try-athlon, a Bedford event held August 13 at the town pool and Bedford High School. The event is a swim, bike and run race for all kids ages 4 to 15, no matter their athletic ability. It is an opportunity for kids to experience a race without the pressures of worrying if they can make the distances or not – designed so that everyone is triumphant! Friends of Aine co-founder Christine Phillips said, "Words aren’t enough to thank the Men's Club for your help last year. and thank you so very much for your support again this year. The Bedford Mens Club is vital to our success and we are grateful!"
The Friends of Aine is a non-profit organization who's mission is to raise funds to support bereavement programs for children, provide a place to house these services and be a grief resource center for community organizations and families. For more information, visit www.friendsofaine.com.
Bedford Men's Club Scholarship
The Bedford Men's Club provided $1,000 scholarships to two graduating high school seniors from Bedford. The scholarships are awarded to seniors who show an outstanding commitment to volunteerism and an ongoing desire to improve our community.
2017 BMC Scholarship recipients Neelam Sandhu and Elizabeth Murray with BMC Vice President Bob Friedburg.
BMC President Dante D'Amato and BMC Secretary Bill Lange volunteered at the Bedford PTG Color Blast 5k Fun Run/Walk.
The Bedford Men's Club volunteered to help at the Bedford PTG Color Blast 5k Fun Run/Walk water station. BMC President, Dante D'Amato said, "The race was very well organized. It was impressive to see so many dedicated volunteers and enthusiastic runners."
The PTG Color Blast 5k is a family-friendly FUN run/walk. Participants danced, twirled, ran, skipped, walked and strolled through six color stations where they were “blasted” with color. The PTG wanted to host a family friendly, community event that would be loads of fun! Proceeds from this event will help advance the mission of the PTG of supporting students, staff and families by providing enriching activities in the schools and for the community. All proceeds go back to the schools.
For more information on the Bedford Parent-Teacher Group, please visit https://bedfordptg.org/.
To visit the PTG Color Blast Facebook page, Click Here!
Check out Mike Sills' Interview of BMC President, Dante D'Amato on BCTV's Community Corner.
A Message from the President:
The Bedford Men's Club has been in Bedford since 1976. Prior to that we were known as the Bedford Jaycees. The Men’s Club contributes to numerous organizations and does so by generating income through our local fund raisers such as our annual Christmas Tree Sale.
Active involvement in the BMC offers a vehicle for individuals to challenge themselves to personal growth. Through one of the many projects which the BMC organizes and runs, a person has the ability to work with others as a team, discover how to make and develop contacts and how to see projects through to their completion.
BMC members are not just an organization of workers, though. The BMC meets once a month and plans social events which builds friendships among our members. This also presents an opportunity for current members to introduce their friends and acquaintances to the BMC.
Any man who is 21 or older and lives or works in Bedford is eligible to become a member. We encourage you to come out and meet people from all walks of life, trying to better themselves and their community. We look forward to seeing you.
If your Bedford organization would like to request a donation, please contact the BMC president. He will schedule a presentation for the next mutually convenient meeting. Meetings are usually the first Monday of each month, sometimes the second Monday due to holidays, and we have no meeting in December. Your group will be asked to make a brief, five-minute presentation to the club. Youth organizations are encouraged to have the kids take part in the presentation. Handouts and promotional material are helpful. The membership as a whole decides which programs and donation requests to fund.
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Current Officers 2017-2018 at Murphy's Tap Room & Carriage House
Bob Friedburg, Vice President
Steve Lawlor, Treasurer
Dante D'Amato, President
Tom Green, Public Relations
Bill Lange, Secretary
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For more details please contact:
Dante D'Amato via email
Click on the "Contact Us" link above
Mailing Address:
Bedford Mens Club
P.O. Box 10338
Bedford, NH 03110-0338