With the Boston Marathon bombings fresh in peoples’ minds, several businesses and individuals are finding ways to give back to the victims and first responders.
Roald Osvold, assistant manager at Fire and Ice on Berkeley Street, said the restaurant has been offering complementary meals to all first responders since April 16.
“At least a fourth of our business has been from first responders,” he said. “Police who have been monitoring the corners, EMTs, doctors, we’ve got them all.”
Osvold said the free meals are a way of thanking the first responders for their comforting presence in the neighborhood.
“We really want to, with all these initiatives, to get everybody in the mindset that we need to get things back to normal and also thank everybody for helping out,” he said. “They’ve been a constant presence keeping everyone calm. When I walk to work, they’re there on every corner.”
Without the first responders, many lives would have been lost during the bombings last Monday, Osvold said.
“I am extremely grateful that we had so many people around. Even civilians just pitched in right away,” he said. “We had a lot of amputees, but they [the responders] saved so many lives by responding correctly. Everybody just came together.”
Adri Cowan, 33, resident of Roxbury, said she is collecting comic books to donate to the Boston Children’s Hospital until Tuesday and will give them to the hospital Wednesday.
“Because comics personally make me happy and bring me joy, and I see it bring joy to so many people and children, I thought that it could be a great way to at least try to distract the children or even the adults who want to read them,” she said.
Cowan said the response to her idea has been incredible and she estimates she will have several hundred books to give to the hospital.
“I’ve so far gotten tons of inquiries and donations from publishing companies and some individuals and comic shops, and it’s really just been incredible and tear-jerking,” she said. “We are going to have more comics than the [Boston] Children’s Hospital can actually hold, so we are looking into the other children’s wards in other hospitals and divvying them up to whoever needs it.”
Jacob Sconyers, 34, a resident of Hyde Park, ran a portion of the marathon route Sunday to raise money for The One Fund.
“It’s just been amazing how generous everyone’s been,” he said. “From my family, from friends around the country, from my coworkers, from strangers I’ve never met who have heard of it on social media or from their friends, it’s really been great.”
Sconyers said he received more than $3,000, well above his original goal of $1,000.
“Everybody just wants to help,” he said. “From the first responders jumping over barricades to go put tourniquets on the injured to the people who already filled every blood bank in the city just hours after the bombings, I’ve never been as proud to be a Bostonian.”
Sconyers said while he was unable to complete the entire course Sunday due to an ankle injury, he intends to finish in the near fuutre.
“Rest assured that I am absolutely committed to finishing this run as soon as my ankle is strong enough,” he said. “I’m going to spend some time with an ice pack and a compression bandage, and I hope to be back in Hopkinton within a week or two.”