CES New Port Richey Supports Community in Holiday Raffle

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“Without our community, we wouldn’t be here,” said CES New Port Richey Branch Manager Justin Torregrossa.

Knowing this, the New Port Richey branch decided to do something special to support their community over the holidays. Last year, they threw a 12 Days of Christmas raffle in which they gave prizes to customers in the 12 days leading up to Christmas.

This year, they wanted to do even more.

Raffle with a Twist

“We decided to include Toys for Tots. Every day, you could spend $50 and get a raffle ticket. But if you brought in a toy on any one of those days, you also received 12 additional tickets — one for each day,” explained Torregrossa.

And it worked. By the end of the event, they had a box of over 100 toys to deliver to theChapel, a church in the area. On top of that, CES customers also had prizes of all shapes and sizes.

“Our community is behind us. They’re the ones who come in the door, the ones who keep our power on and put food on our table,” said Torregrossa. “So, of course, we’ll do anything to give back. It’s not just me, either — it’s the whole branch and it’s my boss, Dan Pippin. We all want to give whenever we can.”

Perfect Time to Give Back

And what a time to give back — not just in the holiday season, but in a year when a lot of people have been struggling with the effects of the ongoing pandemic.

“We always look forward to the last months of the year because we know there’s a lot to do,” said Torregrossa, “but to be able to help this year when a lot of people don’t have a lot felt especially great.”

One of the things that felt great was giving away prizes like a $400 Milwaukee Combo Drill Kit. According to Torregrossa, the branch loves to give to customers who work full days around the holidays.

“It allows them to come in and potentially win something. Something to look forward to,” said Torregrossa.

And in providing something for customers to look forward to, they created something for themselves to look forward to as well — supporting the local community that supports them constantly.

Supporting the Community

“Our contractors and everyday customers are great. They’d much rather come here and shop locally than get their stuff at other places,” said Torregrossa. “They know they’re going to get what they need to get the job done, and they’re going to get it with a smile.”

Everyone was smiling especially big throughout the days of the raffle.

“You could feel it around the branch,” laughed Torregrossa. “Everyone wanted to step up, and we all felt really good being able to do that.”

As good as they felt giving back, the church receiving the toys matched the sentiment.

“The church was ecstatic to receive the toys to give out to families in need,” said Anna Conner with the CES New Port Richey branch. “We had an awesome turnout this year, and we can’t wait to collect even more toys next year!”

In finding new ways to serve their customers and community, CES New Port Richey embodies everything CES stands for.

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