Our Programs

The Third Annual Ricky, Inc. Online Auction has come to an end and due to the compassion and generosity of the many people who opened their hearts to us and participated in the auction either by donating an item, bidding on an item or just making a thoughtful donation; the auction once again became an overwhelming success. 

This year, we were able reach a record number of registered bidders (112) and were provided with a record number of donated auction gifts (89). These numbers far surpassed the last 2 years of auctions and accounted for our highest fundraising event to date.

As hoped for; our donor and sponsor list has grown significantly and has helped us to take our auction to another level. This has provided us and our participants with a wider array of auction gifts to choose from, with this year falling just short of 100 different items to bid on. We have, for the third straight year, received many compliments on the different and wide variety of items that were offered and we want to express our sincerest thanks and appreciation to all of those that donated these fantastic auction items.

We believe that our organization has received more popularity due to many factors such as the all-important “word of mouth”, our active Facebook, updated Website, new Instagram account and the incredible assistance the Norwood Police Social Media accounts, Norwood Community Media, Norwood Bulletin and the Local Town Pages Newspaper. Of course we would have nothing if not for the many, many businesses and individuals that opened their hearts to us, believed in our mission and went out of their way to solicit donations, auction prizes and make more people aware of Ricky, Inc. 

We exceeded our original fund-raising goal by reaching approximately 110% of our expected goal. This total includes not only the proceeds from the auction but the generous donations that were made to Ricky, Inc. during the month of October outside of the auction.

This funding will enable us to continue to provide backpacks to those in crisis, transportation for those securing beds in treatment facilities that have a true financial need and we have already started providing financial sponsorship to someone suffering from substance use disorder that cannot afford to pay for their first month in treatment.

We continue to add new organizations to be recipients of our backpack program: increasing the number of persons that will not only receive a backpack and it's valuable resource booklet, but provide a degree of relief from life on the streets and possibly help them realize that they matter. Letting a person in a seemingly hopeless crisis know that someone cares can be a life-saving factor in their decision to seek recovery. 

On behalf of the Ricky, Inc. Board of Directors, our Street Outreach Coordinators and all of our families and friends, we extend our most heartfelt thanks and appreciation for your kindness, generosity and your participation in making our fund raising event a huge success. We look forward to the Fourth Annual Ricky, Inc. Auction in September 2023 and hope for your continued support of our organization in the future.

Thank you for making a Difference

Thank you for helping us to honor and remember our beautiful boy Ricky.

God Bless you for your kindness and thoughtfulness,

Rich & Bernadette Giacoppo 

The Second Annual Ricky, Inc. Virtual Auction has come to an end in spectacular fashion. Due to the compassion and generosity of the many people who opened their hearts to us and participated in the auction either by donating an item, bidding on an item or just making a thoughtful donation; the auction became an overwhelming success. 

Everyone that participated enjoyed the daily (sometimes hourly) thrill of checking in on their bid to see the status of the item they bid on. Most people were able to bid on multiple items as our gift list this year was comprised of more than 65 gifts. We have received many compliments on the wide variety of items that were offered and we want to express our sincerest thanks and appreciation to all of those that donated these great auction items. Our donor and sponsor list has grown over the past year and we will strive to continue to keep this successful growth into the coming years.

The Jimmy Tingle comedy show was a phenomenal success and great way to end the auction. Jimmy has been a wonderful friend to us and we cannot express our thanks enough to him for what he has done to support us and help us in our mission to keep Ricky's name and memory alive. His comedy show provided registered auction bidders with lots of laughs and was received very well by all that "zoomed-in".

We far exceeded our original fund-raising goal by reaching approximately 140% of our expected goal. This will enable us to provide even more backpacks to those in crisis and we are anticipating being able to provide a financial sponsorship to someone suffering from substance use disorder that cannot afford to pay for their first month in treatment. It will also allow us to add new organizations to be recipients of our backpack program: increasing the number of persons that will not only receive a backpack and it's valuable resource booklet, but provide a degree of relief from life on the streets and possibly help them realize that they matter. Letting a person in a seemingly hopeless crisis know that someone cares can be a life-saving factor in their decision to seek recovery. 

On behalf of the Ricky, Inc. Board of Directors, our Street Outreach Coordinators and all of our families and friends, we extend our most heartfelt thanks and appreciation for your kindness, generosity and your participation in making our fund raising event a huge success. We look forward to the Third Annual Ricky, Inc. Auction in 2022 and hope for your continued support of our organization in the future.

Thank you for helping us to honor and remember our beautiful boy Ricky.

God Bless you for your kindness,

Rich & Bernadette Giacoppo