The Flatley Foundation, of Braintree, donates $50,000 to The Patriot Ledger's Lend a Hand

Jessica Trufant, The Patriot Ledger
·2 min read

QUINCY − While many South Shore families are buffeted by high inflation and rising energy costs, the Flatley Foundation, of Braintree, this year contributed $50,000 to The Patriot Ledger's annual holiday fundraiser, Lend a Hand.

The Flatley Foundation, which was founded in 1982 by the late Thomas J. Flatley, of the real estate firm The Flatley Co., makes a very generous annual contribution to Lend a Hand. This year's $50,000 is the largest donation the fundraiser has received from a single donor in more than a decade.

“God bless your work and the families you serve during this very difficult time in our world,” Mary Margaret Flatley Darling, of the Flatley Foundation, wrote in a letter accompanying the donation.

Thomas Flatley, who died in 2008, was a generous benefactor of Lend a Hand. In 1998, during the fundraiser's first year, Flatley read about a woman who needed a wheelchair van to take her husband to medical appointments. The couple were raising three grandchildren and the husband could no longer work because he had Lou Gehrig’s disease. Flatley contacted the Ledger not just to make a donation, but to buy the van for the family.

Quincy Community Action Programs opens a expanded resource center and food pantry on Copeland Street near Brewers Corner in November.
Quincy Community Action Programs opens a expanded resource center and food pantry on Copeland Street near Brewers Corner in November.

The Patriot Ledger's Lend a Hand fundraiser was founded by the paper’s then-executive editor, Chazy Dowaliby, to assist those in need. It has since raised more than $3.3 million for clients of the three partner organizations: the South Shore Community Action Council, Quincy Community Action Programs Inc. and Aspire Health Alliance. Lend a Hand only takes monetary donations, which go to the agencies and the people they serve.

The Lend a Hand campaign is able to help those in need because of the generosity of others. Long-overdue rent money, clothing and car repairs are just some of the things the campaign helps pay for.

Last year's largest donations included $25,000 from Don Dickinson, of D&A Realty in Braintree, followed by a $15,000 donation from The Flatley Foundation and $5,000 donations from the Copeland Family Foundation in Milton and an anonymous donor in memory of Ann DesRoches.

An anonymous couple gave $20,000 in 2000, and $15,000 from an anonymous donor has come in annually for many years.

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Here’s how you can help Lend a Hand

Clip the coupon published in The Patriot Ledger, fill out all the fields, write a check or money order and mail it to: 

Lend a Hand 

The Patriot Ledger 

3 Webster Square 

PMB #467 

Marshfield, MA 02050 

Call our friends at Ansaphone at 617-424-9825 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. 

Donate securely online though PayPal. Search: Ledger Lend a Hand Foundation.  

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: The Flatley Foundation donates $50,000 to annual Lend a Hand fundraiser