“9/11 Day of Giving” raises a record $100,000 for charity

Sept. 19, 2011 - PRLog -- Centennial, CO  – Thanks to stunning generosity from the community, Big Bill’s NY Pizza’s  “9/11 Day of Giving” on Sept. 11, 2011, raised a record amount of more than $100,000, all of which will go to fight cancer in Colorado through the JoAnn B. Ficke Cancer Foundation.

The “Day of Giving” tradition at Big Bill’s NY Pizza is that for the whole day, there are no checks for any orders, guests are simply asked to make a donation in exchange for their food and drinks. The first “9/11 Day of Giving” at Big Bill’s NY Pizza was the brainchild of owner Big Bill Ficke and was held shortly after the attacks September 11 attacks, with the money going to help families of New York firefighters. The event created such a positive feel, Ficke decided to make it an annual event.  Since 2001, Big Bill’s NY Pizza has now raised more than $700,000 for charities through its “Day of Giving.”

Last year in 2010, the “Day of Giving” raised $67,000. For 2011, Ficke set the ambitious goal of $100,000 to create a major positive on the 10th anniversary of the horrific day in U.S. history. This year, visitors to Big Bill’s NY Pizza donated an average of nearly four times more than what their meals would have cost on a regular day.

“The generosity of our customers and our community is just unbelievable,” said Ficke, a 30-year Colorado resident who grew up in New York. “When we came up with the goal of reaching $100,000 to make something positive of a depressing 10th anniversary, we had faith that people would respond, and they did with a giving spirit that is simply overwhelming.”

The entire Big Bill’s NY Pizza staff donates their salary, time and tips, vendors donate supplies and Big Bill covers any extra hard costs, so 100 percent of all funds received on the “Day of Giving” go to charity and will be distributed through the nonprofit JoAnn B. Ficke Cancer Foundation that Big Bill and son Dan Ficke founded in 2009 in honor of their wife and mother who passed away in 2007.

For more information on the JoAnn B. Ficke Cancer Foundation, visit http://www.JoAnnBFickeCancerFoundation.org, or for more information on Big Bill’s NY Pizza, visit http://www.BigBillsNYPizza.com.

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