RICKY,Inc

In September, Ricky, Inc.'s President Rich Giacoppo sat down with Norwood Community Media's Jack McCarthy and filmed a segment for his weekly show Norwood Digest.

Please click on the following link to view the entire approximately 55 minute interview that included lots of information about Ricky, Inc., our nonprofit charitable activities and some powerful information regarding grief from the loss of a loved one.

https://reflect-npa.cablecast.tv/vod/12092-Digest-RichG-v1/vod.mp4

Special Thanks to Meghan Staffiere-Corbett, Brian Boudreau, Jack McCarthy and the entire staff at Norwood Community Media for making this possible.

On Tuesday Sept. 13, 2022 Rich was interviewed by Jack McCarthy on his cable show "Norwood Digest". They discussed the activities and services that Ricky, Inc. provides and highlighted the valuable backpack program including the incredible Resource Manual that they designed for people in crisis to get help.

Rich brought a backpack stuffed with hygiene products, winter clothing and much more and took each item out to show just how many items the backpacks are filled with.

Rich also announced that the 3rd Annual Ricky, Inc. Online Auction 2022 will begin on Wednesday Oct. 12th and run for 5-days to Sunday Oct. 16th. 

Registration will begin on Wednesday Oct. 5th and can accessed on the Ricky, Inc. website with easy to follow directions & tutorial at  www.rickyinc.org 

The entire interview can be seen on Norwood Community Media's Norwood Digest show in early October. For a sneak peek at the short teaser of that interview, click on the following YouTube link  https://youtu.be/mabDbhhng0M

   This is Ricky with his family “photo bomb” precious Lady, Nicholas, Ricky, Tig, Christian, Sissy and Christopher. Our love is love for each other. 

Its Official - We have been approved! 

There are five days left to “International Overdose Awareness Month”. As we have said many times there are no words to fully describe losing our son to an overdose. Ricky fought this insidious disease for many years and our hearts are forever broken. 

We have said Ricky was a fierce advocate of Narcan (Naloxone). Ricky carried it with him at all times. He told me “Mum carry it in your purse you could save a life”. And I do. We saved our beloved son’s life in our own home at least three times over the years with the Narcan Ricky gave us. As traumatic as this was each time we saved our son we had our Ricky with us. If only he had that chance on the day our world was forever changed.

We applied to the State of MA to be approved to the “Community Naloxone Purchasing Program” (CNPP) Affiliate Program. We are honored to announce we have been officially approved. We are hoping to have the ability to distribute Naloxone by September which is “National Recovery Month”. We thank Ricky for this. His passion was to get Narcan into as many hands as possible. I was once told by a Naloxone Trainer that while in rehab she would love to see Ricky as he was a joy and could easily have taught the class himself.

From the first backpacks we distributed it was our mission to learn how we could distribute Narcan. We truly don’t know how, after only six months of losing our beautiful boy we began this mission. We were still in shock from losing him and feel we still are.

This one is for you Ricky, we promise to uphold your dream. Naloxone saves lives and there is no question about it. The next few days leading up to Overdose Awareness Day we will post information on Naloxone. 

If you will, please say a thank you to Ricky today for guiding us through this process and our success. 

Forever Ricky’s Mum and Dad   

Our beautiful boy we miss you more every day, we want to share Ricky’s passions in honor of Overdose Awareness month and to help end the stigma and share one of the beloved faces of substance use disorder. 

Ricky was a beautiful baby not just because I’m his mom but because people would say he’s too pretty to be a boy.

He loved to play with his matchbox cars that his grandfather would bring each visit. 

He loved his little green army men. But most of all he loved his Jammie’s robe blanket and sippy cup while watching Winnie the Pooh.

Ricky loved to read in grammar school he joined a book club. He was involved in many sports but would prefer to be reading.

In middle school he volunteered at MSPCA working mostly with the pit bulls and was asked by MSPCA to be in a video to end the stigma around pit bulls being aggressive dangerous dogs. In the video Ricky is hugging, kissing, and rolling in the grass with these beautiful dogs. No job was too menial for Ricky he did it all from cleaning the cages to walking the dogs. He later became a foster family for pets in need. Of course he adopted two of the cats

Ricky was a history buff and joined a civil war round table in middle school with his Dad they made a specific exception for his age. We still have his library on the Civil War. A family trip to Gettysburg was a dream come true for him.

Ricky made friends easily and loved many like family some friends for his lifetime 

Ricky was in four school plays one being the lead part 

Ricky joined a morning radio show in 6th grade calling in every morning known as Ricky The Paperboy. We had no idea. 

Ricky had a quick wit like no other he could have easily done stand up.

Ricky joined PETA in 9th grade and advocated for animals and against the labs that did testing on them. He once wore a Turkey suit over a highway overpass with a sign that read “go Vegan”. He was vegan for a time.

Ricky adored his Dog Lady, he called her his therapy pet

Ricky took piano lessons; he was an acolyte at church

Ricky was working on writing his life story

Ricky gave the best hugs he would always press his cheek to yours. 

Ricky was loyal to all those he loved

Ricky was a self-proclaimed Mama’s Boy

Ricky as an adult would sit for hours with his Dad watching TV laughing Loud. I mean really loud the two of them… I loved being in bed and hearing them…I’d say thank you God for having this moment 

Ricky loves his brothers he was loyal and truly felt joy when his brothers excelled or as simple as spending time together laughing and hanging together

Ricky talked often about the family trip to Aruba in his twenties with his brothers and all their crazy fun antics together

Ricky was with his Mum and grandmother in Florida during Hurricane Katrina Ricky was our protector 

Ricky got his dream job at Animal Rescue League as an adoption counselor 

Ricky attended UMASS Boston to be a Substance Use Counselor 

Ricky hoped to one day to be a paralegal

As a family we sat together at the kitchen table every night for dinner

We did homework at the dining room table

We built forts

We built bike jumps

We went to Nana and Pa’s every Sunday for family dinner for many years

Ricky and his Nana would spend hours together smoking cigarettes, talking and laughing out loud (3 of his favorite things to do)

We went to Sissy’s at the Cape for years, swimming, fishing, making crab traps out of soda bottles (catch and release of course)

We made seashell necklaces and ornaments

We had popcorn Pepsi parties

We read together every night

We went on family trips with Sissy (Grandmother) several which were Disney

Ricky would jump on our bed throughout his life right up to the day before the world changed just to talk or act silly, Ricky loved to make us laugh

We had our issues like any family

We love each other each fiercely 

We are a loving family that never ever imagined we would end up here. 

We are like you

We are a mother

We are a Father

We are a brother

We are a family that is left to ask why? 

Why our beautiful Ricky?

Why God?

Please Do Your Part to End the Stigma of Substance Use Disorder and please remember our Ricky

On Tuesday August 2, 2022 Ricky, Inc. visited the Town of Norwood Veterans Affairs Director Teddy Mulvehill and made another backpack delivery.

These 13 backpacks will benefit local male and female veterans who need assistance and may be facing homelessness, mental health issues and/or substance use disorder. Teddy does great work in providing services and finding homes for veterans in crisis. He will distribute these backpacks as the need arises and we will continue to provide the Town of Norwood and its Veterans with these materials.

Thank you to the men and women who have served our country, and to Teddy (USMC) for all he does to support and provide benefits for the Veterans. 

We at Ricky Inc want Veterans to know that they matter and we are here for them. 

Always in the name of our beloved son Ricky 

On Thursday July 21, 2022 Ricky, Inc. visited with the female residents and staff at the Shepherd House in Dorchester. This was our first of many visits to come and we were greeted by a friendly and helpful staff led by the Program Director Zanele McIntyre.

Rich spoke with the women for over 30 minutes, detailing Ricky's story, the effects on loved ones, staying strong in recovery and the importance of ending the stigma of addiction. The women were impressed when Rich took the items out of a backpack to show them the contents they were about to receive. They were so gracious and appreciative for each and every item and let him know how much it really meant to them. 

Many of them were also giving condolences and saying how proud Ricky would be of his parents for doing this work for people in need and showing them kindness and compassion, both of which they stated that they are not used to receiving especially from strangers. The atmosphere was so very friendly and comfortable even though we were in the middle of an incredible heat wave. 

After the question and answer session, the women each received their backpacks and every one of them came up to and personally thanked Rich. Several of them stayed and spoke about their stories and stated that our visit was inspirational to them.

We were able to distribute 23 backpacks to all of the clients in the program, several Grief Packets and each woman also received one of our purple Ricky, Inc. bracelets with our web site and motto; Respecting Individuals with Care & Kindness You matter.

Helping people in need, 1 step, 1 day & 1 person at a time

We CAN make a difference

Always in the name of our beloved Ricky

On Wednesday June 22, 2022 Ricky, inc. visited the New Victory program for men in Dorchester. This was our 2nd visit and we were warmly accepted again by all of the house.

Rich & Bernadette spoke with the men for about 30 minutes and did a show & tell with the contents of the backpacks that the men were receiving. Every resident received a filled backpack and showed their overwhelming thanks and gratitude. We were able to distribute 35 backpacks to all of the clients in the program.

The men were so receptive and compassionate that one man asked that we hold a moment of silence in honor of Ricky. It was a wonderful moment and something that we were very grateful for, especially since the man did not know Ricky.

Program Director Laura Holt was gracious and supportive, and her staff was very helpful to us during our stay. It was obvious how much Laura and her staff truly care about the men.

Pictured above is Bernadette & Rich, Laura Holt and her staff and several clients residing in this house. In the forefront is Richard, who is holding a photo of Ricky. Richard knew Ricky many years ago and was sad to hear about his passing.

Thank you to every single man in that house for making this move in your lives and we hope and pray that we have helped you in some small way to regain your strength, self-esteem and dignity 

On Thursday June 2, 2022 Ricky, Inc. distributed 80 filled backpacks to the staff members of the Boston Public Health Commissions outreach programs AHOPE & PAATHS on Albany Street in Boston. 

Thank you to the extremely hard working members of both organizations,

AHOPE; Tina, Sarah, Danny & Kenny

PAATHS; Eugenia, Leroy & Edgardo

On Thursday May 26, 2022 we revisited New Joelyn's Recovery Home for Women. We delivered 24 filled backpacks, key chains, underwear, grief packets and provided the women with cookies and juice boxes. We spoke for about 45 minutes and had a very nice question and answer session with the residents and staff.

Thank you to the Program Director Walter Kikuchi, Christine, Carol and the rest of the wonderful staff that do such a great job.