|
|
|
BNH Business and Civic Awards: CITIZEN OF THE YEAR
Doing Unto Others
Restaurateur Vigilante does good even as he does well
|
Business New Haven
2/2/2004
By: Theresa L. Corso
|
A Long Island native, Christopher Vigilante moved to New Haven to live with his brother, who had a job in the area. He enrolled as a liberal arts major at Southern Connecticut State University before leaving to open Christopher Martin's in May 1985.
Vigilante was just 22 years old when he and his partner opened the restaurant, and the pair struggled financially to keep the eatery afloat. Even Vigilante's father contributed to the project by building the pub's bar.
Vigilante says his restaurant is a reflection of his personality - including even how he eats and how he gets along with people.
"I love my job," he says, "[It] is exhilarating and a lot of fun." Christopher Martin's features both a bar area and a more formal dining room with neatly folded linens and wine glasses accenting the tables. Vigilante affords area artists the opportunity to showcase their artworks in the dining area. The pieces are replaced every three to four months with new works that keeps the restaurant's look fresh as it changes with the seasons.
For the last 14 years, Christopher Martin's has opened its doors on Thanksgiving to the working poor, homeless and lonely. The restaurant serves a sit-down turkey dinner in its dining room for up to 500 people from the New Haven area.
Following dinner, the restaurant's guests are invited to the pub area for care packages they make for themselves. Replacing bottles of liquor on the bar's shelves are canned goods for the diners to take with them. The cocktail area is filled with donated clothes that have been neatly organized for convenient browsing.
Some might wonder why a restaurant owner would close his business for an entire day. "We're all brothers and sisters," says Vigilante. "Homelessness touched my family. My aunt lived on the streets in New York City, but homelessness was not in front of the news as it is today."
Vigilante could not serve up a Thanksgiving dinner without plenty of help. Some 30 to 40 volunteers help to create the event and many of the volunteers return year after year. Approximately 15 to 20 passenger vans are donated to transport needy patrons from throughout greater New Haven including Hamden, Branford, East Haven and West Haven, to State Street. The restaurant's food vendors typically donate food for the meal, while Stop & Shop and the general public have donated canned goods and other foodstuffs for the care packages. The New Haven-based Knights of Columbus brings coats every year while local dry cleaners donate hangers. Area musicians often stop by to entertain visitors with a few songs as well.
Vigilante notes that many of the dinner guests visit every year for Thanksgiving. "It can be sad to see the same people over and over again in poverty, but it is heart-wrenching to be able to help them," he says.
Since its inauguration in December 1985, the "Christopher Martin's Christmas Run for Children" has become an annual event for New Haven - a holiday tradition, even. The December 14 event marked its 19th anniversary. More than 1,000 runners competed in the five-kilometer (3.1-mile) race and many runners return year after year, Vigilante notes. The race route is from the restaurant to Crown Street, to Orange Street and finishes back at Christopher Martin's.
An entry fee of one toy is assessed, although many participants donate many more. In the 19 years the event has been held, more than 25,000 toys have been collected.
JB Sports (www.jbsports.com) is an events management company in Branford with an online database of race results including the results for the Christmas Run. It explains the goal of the event is "to make Christmas a little brighter for needy children in the New Haven area by giving them not only a toy, but the message a toy conveys: a message of love from friends and neighbors they have never met."
Having originally donated toys from the December race to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve "Toys for Tots" program, Vigilante chose later to donate them to the New Haven Department of Police Services in order to more widely distribute the toys to local children.
John Bysiewicz has been the "Christopher Martin's Christmas Run for Children" race director for ten years. Bysiewicz is also race director for a half-dozen New Haven events, including the Labor Day New Haven Road Race. He thinks that people should be grateful for what Vigilante does for the community. "[Vigilante] does a lot for the community and he has been doing it for a long time. People don't know about everything he does for them," says Bysiewicz.
Donating soup and food to the Connecticut Food Bank Rescue (formerly operated by the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven and known as Rachel's Table) is one of the charitable acts Vigilante participates in.
The Connecticut Food Bank Rescue (CFBR), administered by the Connecticut Food Bank, is a food-recovery program. The program coordinates and transports donated surplus food from those in the food-service industry to community organizations such as area soup kitchens, soup pantries and senior-citizen facilities.
Each week Christopher Martin's donates soup and food that is not surplus from the restaurant but I cooked specifically for CFBR. "Food is our deal- being responsible is the bottom line," explains Vigilante.
Willis Diggs, CFBR's facilities director, commends Vigilante's efforts to help the needy. "I am very much in favor of what [Vigilante] does, especially his efforts for his Thanksgiving dinner and donating food and soup," Diggs says.
Says Diggs, who met Vigilante some ten years ago while working as director of the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen on Temple Street in New Haven, "People doing what [Vigilante] does are not always recognized as they should be and how they deserve."
Last year Christopher Martin's hosted benefits for the Easter Seals Goodwill Industries and New Haven's St. Patrick's Day Parade. In July, 40 people attended "Secrets from Down Under," an Australian wine-tasting and dinner that featured aboriginal music. The $100 tickets supported Easter Seals Goodwill Industries. In September the Gaelic Gala - which featured a buffet dinner with traditional Irish food, beer, wine and music - was held to benefit the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
For small businesspeople who think about contributing to the community, Vigilante offers some advice. For starters, "Start small. For retail, it is easy to give away gift certificates [to charities], see how it feels," Vigilante says.
For almost 20 years Vigilante and his restaurant have helped the New Haven community with donations and special events. For just as long, Vigilante has gone mainly unrecognized by people other than those who have been directly affected by his and his restaurant's generosity.
Why does he do it?
Beyond enjoying what he does, Vigilante believes firmly: "If you are in business you should give back."
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
