The Helping Hand: Watertown Helps Out
What makes Watertown special? One of the reasons you'll often hear people say is that it's a community that deeply cares about taking care of each other. One example of that is Watertown Helps Out, a unique month of community volunteering organized by the Watertown Community Foundation each May.
The Helping Hand is a new series for the podcast that focuses on nonprofits and mission-based organizations and projects in Watertown. So for the first episode, I thought Watertown Helps Out would be a great topic to dig into. I sat down for 3 conversations to get stories and perspectives from:
-The main orchestrator, Tia Tilson, Executive Director of the Watertown Community Foundation.
-A nonprofit benefiting from the projects, Gary Beatty, Executive Director of the Watertown Boys and Girls Club.
-And a life science company that says their company wouldn't be what it is without its day of service, Matt Forti, Head of Facilities, and Alessandra Arace, Employee Experience Manager, C4 Therapeutics
Released April 24th, 2026
(Click here to listen on streaming apps) (Full transcript below)
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You can find out more about Watertown Helps Out and join in the volunteering effort at watertownfoundation.org/watertown-helps-out.
Sign up for the Little Local Conversations email newsletter to know when new episodes are out and keep up on everything Little Local Conversations.
Thanks to podcast promotional partner the Watertown Business Coalition, a nonprofit organization focused on connecting local businesses and strengthening our community. Check them out at watertownbusinesscoalition.com.
Thanks to promotional partner Watertown News, a Watertown-focused online newspaper. Check them out at watertownmanews.com.
Thank you to The Helping Hand series sponsor Watertown Savings Bank!
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Transcript
Matt 0:07
Hi there, welcome to the Little Local Conversations Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode I sit down for a conversation to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is the first in a new series called The Helping Hand, which is a series focused on nonprofit and mission-based organizations and projects going on in the city. The series is sponsored by Watertown Savings Bank. Thank you very much. And this first episode is focusing on Watertown Helps Out, which is a unique month of volunteering and giving back to the community that is organized by the Watertown Community Foundation.
Matt 0:42
So to tell the story of Watertown Helps Out, I sat down for a few conversations. I sat down with Tia Tilson, the Executive Director of Watertown Community Foundation. And have a short conversation with Gary Beatty, the Executive Director at the Watertown Boys and Girls Club, to get the perspective of one of the nonprofits that gets the benefit from the volunteering. And then I spoke to a couple people at C4 Therapeutics, Matt Forti, the Head of Facilities for C4 Therapeutics, and Alessandra Arace, the Employee Experience Manager at C4 Therapeutics, to get a corporate perspective of how they've been involved in giving back to the community that they're a part of. So let's get into the first part by chatting with Tia.
Matt 1:20
I'm here today with Tia Tilson, who is the Executive Director of the Watertown Community Foundation. And we're going to talk a little bit about one of your premier things that you guys do, which is Watertown Helps Out. But first you want to just introduce yourself and a little bit about the foundation.
Tia 1:35
Thank you, Matt. Thank you for being here. And it's great to be able to talk about Watertown Helps Out. We'll get into that a little bit more. But the Watertown Community Foundation has been an integral part of the Watertown community for over 20 years, for more than 20 years. Our work here is to advance positive change in Watertown by making grants available to nonprofits. We organize our work in key areas: support for essential needs, support for education, youth, and development, and support for community engagement. And also block parties. Block parties were our very first grant when we first started. And what we really envision is a welcoming community where people of all backgrounds can thrive, connect, and contribute to the strength and resilience of our city. And Watertown Helps Out is an important part of that.
Matt 2:21
Great. So why don't we get into it? How did Watertown Helps Out enter that equation? When did that come in? How many years? All that.
Tia 2:28
Watertown Helps Out, affectionately known as WHO, started right after the marathon bombing. And that was such a trauma here for Watertown. The Watertown Community Foundation thought that if we had, at that point a day of community service, it would be a way for people to come out, meet their neighbors, connect, and take care of one another. The focus of Watertown Helps Out is to connect volunteers, community volunteers, corporate volunteers to nonprofits. And these can be professionally run nonprofits or volunteer-run nonprofits to help with whatever project they have. It originally started as a single day of community service. And then over the 12, 13 years that we have been doing this, it's now grown to an entire month of community service because the demand for it was that great. It also creates more flexibility so it fits in people's schedules.
Matt 3:16
That first year that it came out, do you remember some of those first projects?
Tia 3:19
This is a little bit before my time, but back in the day, Watertown Helps Out, they were doing a lot of work on the river. There was a lot of environmental stewardship at that point. In that time since then, it's always encompassed a lot of outdoor groundswork for our nonprofits, whether it's churches, whether it's the Boys and Girls Club. In this time, Watertown Community Gardens has always been an active participant in this. Watertown Helps Out volunteers have worked on establishing some of the community gardens we have, some of the school gardens we have, working in collaboration with community gardens. So it's run the gamut. We've got some nonprofits that have been with us for years, for years. And other projects kind of ebb and flow as needed.
Tia 3:58
There's the Whitney Hill neighbors. These are the neighbors that surround Whitney Hill. From time to time, they put a project in with Watertown Helps Out as a way to help organize the abutters to go clean up Whitney Hill. I think that's an untapped potential of Watertown Helps Out, where neighbors and neighborhoods could come together for a neighborhood project and use this platform as a way to lift it up, whether it's trash cleanup, pruning in the neighborhood, or particular art projects in partnership with the city, that could be done on a neighborhood basis. I think there's a lot of potential there.
Matt 4:30
Yeah. So what are some of your favorite success stories from the previous incarnations of who?
Tia 4:37
Oh, that's a great question. There's been some fun projects. Every year there's projects that startle me a little bit. And just that they're so creative and what a great way to bring people together. The first year I did this, New Rep, which was a theater company that at the time was the anchor client at the Mosesian, needed volunteers to go through their costume closet. That was a riot. That was kind of a fun project. We've had volunteers working on murals. So the mural down by the CVS. That was very much a lot of volunteer work on that. And that was fun. That was great to see that here's an art project that people came together to help complete. Some that have come up for this year, Perkins every year puts a ton of projects in. Many of them are support for their students in attending various events. But one this year is like creating boutonnieres for their prom. I mean, that's fun.
Tia 5:27
In terms of successes, all of them are successes. I mean, when we can fully staff the project for the nonprofits. You know, Watertown Community Gardens makes incredible progress on the Watertown Cambridge Greenway in terms of cleaning up invasives and establishing pollinator gardens. They've got a pretty robust volunteer program without us, but we're really pleased that we can bring, I think this year they're putting out four dates. They're working with two companies and two community groups. That'll probably be 50 volunteers. That's 100 people hours. If that's a two-hour shift. That's 100 people hours. That's a lot of work.
Tia 6:00
One of the real successes is that when we can put volunteers in the community and connect them with the nonprofits, sometimes those are long-lasting relationships that continue after this. Because this is a one-shot, we do it every year. But our hope is that there are sustaining relationships with these nonprofits, both on the community level and on the corporate level. We have a very robust corporate program where we work with our life science companies here to connect them to nonprofits and to place teams of their employees in the community. Enanta, they do probably two or three projects a year. This is just one of them. Kymera does a couple of projects a year. C4 takes one day in WHO, and they'll put 80 volunteers in the community on a single day, working across five or six nonprofits. That to me is a tremendous success because there are long-standing relationships. The people that come to this city to work, they may spend more time here than they do in their own communities. They get to know what makes this place so vibrant, and they get to know some of the cultural gems that we have here. And that's super valuable. And we're really proud of that as well.
Tia 7:10
The tagline for WHO is “together we can do so much”, and we really do believe in that passionately because we see it every single year. It's amazing what gets done. One of the things that we did last year as part of WHO. We ran a citywide food drive. The foundation had never done this before. And for us, it was a real learning curve on partnering with city institutions to make sure that there are distribution drop-off points, creating the volunteer force to pick up the food. We worked with the city to create a distribution point. And this was all sponsored last year by ButcherBox, which then brought volunteers in to do food sorting and distribution to the food pantries. It was a tremendous success. And the additional success of it was that when the SNAP benefits were cut off in October, we had a model that we could put in place immediately. It was a very important and quick partnership to come together with the city to do that, but we knew how to do this. They took the bulk of the work on the one in November, December, but we had practiced it. We knew how to do it. That is something that I think is another value of doing this. We know how to come together as a community and we know how to come together to help one another. And that is one of the primary benefits of Watertown Helps Out.
Matt 8:24
Yeah. So how about like what are the numbers? How many people volunteer, how many organizations are involved from the nonprofits to the corporates? Do you have numbers on those?
Tia 8:35
Last year we put, I think around 350 volunteers into the community over the month of May, probably across a couple of dozen nonprofits. I would say that it's about half and half in terms of corporate volunteers and community volunteers. And we are constantly scanning the horizon to make sure that we've got a good balance for both. And that we also have a good balance for families. We want to make sure that these are family-friendly. It's a great way for families to come out. So when I work with our corporate partners and we've had some phenomenal corporate partners, Enanta this year is one of our top catalyzing community partners. C4 Therapeutics and Kymera have been long-term partners in bringing their corporate teams. Arsenal Yard Life Sciences, this will be their second year in sponsoring it. They get their teams of people outside. It can be a team of 20. In the case of C4, it'll be 80 people in the community on a single day. Arsenal Yards Life Sciences put close to 100 people on the river in a single day of river cleanup. That's amazing. And they have fun. They're outside, they are giving back to the community they drive through, they're learning about the same thing that our local volunteers are learning about. They're learning about our food pantry’s need, Boys and Girls Club. Many of them do participate with our schools in terms of STEM programs, but they're seeing that there's more beyond that.
Matt 9:47
And you make it easy for them because you have all these connections already, right?
Tia 9:50
I do, yeah. So when they sponsor Watertown Helps Out, they have our dedicated attention to working with them in terms of their goals, the date they have, the amount of time they have. And then I'm working the phones, talking with our nonprofit partners to connect them. And my hope is that for the nonprofits, this becomes a lasting relationship and that I can be a facilitator in that. And in many ways it has. I mean, I have the nonprofits say, oh, I love that company. I really want to have them come back again. And that's exactly what I want to hear.
Matt 10:21
Yeah. I'm sitting down today with Gary Beatty, who is the Executive Director at the Watertown Boys and Girls Club. So we're going to talk a little bit about Watertown Helps Out, how you've been involved, how it's helped out your club. Yeah, and just want to say hello and a little bit about you and the club.
Gary 10:39
Yeah, absolutely. Well, firstly, welcome back. Great to have you back here at the Boys and Girls Club.
Matt 10:43
Yes, second interview in this room.
Gary 10:44
Yes, indeed. So, yeah, Gary Beatty, I've been the Executive Director here at the club since October of 2022. Coming up on three and a half years. The Watertown Boys and Girls Club is the largest youth-serving nonprofit organization in Watertown. We provide year-round programming and services for our kids and the families of Watertown and surrounding communities. Our biggest program is our year-round after school program, which we now have got a drop-in program for kids ages seven plus and a licensed program for kids in kindergarten through second grade. When school is not in session, we have programs during all the school vacation breaks and our always popular Club Adventure Summer Camp, which runs basically for the entirety of the summer. So we go year-round providing services with kids and we love what we do.
Matt 11:28
Yeah. So, what's your involvement with Watertown Helps Out? It sounds like it's something you've been involved with your entire time here, right?
Gary 11:34
It is, yeah. So I learned about it in the first springtime in which I was here as the executive director, met Tia at that time and got to know a little bit about what the community foundation does, and I've learned a lot about it since. Tia helped to connect us with multiple different groups here in town and explained that this is an opportunity for volunteers in the community to come and help out with nonprofit organizations like ours. At that time, I was still kind of figuring out the lay of the land and how the club operates. We have a pretty small team of staff here. We are a nonprofit organization with a fairly tight budget. So the prospect of having a group of volunteers come in to help us out at no cost to us was certainly something that was appealing to us. Really, our main connection with the Watertown Helps Out is that every May a group would come in and they help us to do a pretty thorough cleaning and organization of the club. As I'm sure you can imagine, with, you know, close to a thousand members and over 70,000 hours of activity in the building every year.
Matt 12:29
Things get disorganized.
Gary 12:30
Get disorganized. And we accumulate lots of bits and pieces and equipment that breaks over time. And we are always trying to repurpose and recycle things where we possibly can. But every now and again, stuff will accumulate. And it's just helpful to have an outside group come in to be able to give us whether it's several hours or a half day of focused energy to really help us get ourselves and our building and our organization cleaned up a little bit. And that's really what the main focus of our connection with the volunteers has been. There have been different groups. Again, we've been very fortunate that for several years now, C4 Therapeutics have been one of our biggest partners, a large organization, obviously, here in Watertown. Grace Chapel is another organization, are neighbors not far along Main Street here in Watertown that have come in. And there have been individuals that have come in as well through the Watertown Helps Out program. So anytime folks are interested in helping us, we generally will do all we can to find an opportunity to take advantage of that as best we can.
Matt 13:23
Yeah. So how's that process of getting through that volunteering day? Explain how easy it is for people because, you know, as someone at nonprofits, like, oh, another thing to get on my plate, but how easy has this been for you?
Gary 13:35
Yeah, well, again, Tia and the Community Foundation really do most of the legwork. So it has not been a really heavy lift for us. They are wonderfully organized, so they're always at least a few months ahead of the curve as far as letting us know that it's upcoming. What they ask us to do is to put together any projects, big or small, that we might want to have volunteers tackle and help us out with. So myself and my team of staff here, we get together and talk about, well, you know, you know, that closet. There's been a mountain of old equipment in there that we haven't gotten around to looking at. So it would be great to have two or three people work on that for a couple of hours. Our gymnasium can always use a deep clean. The outside grounds of the building, we always like to try and have volunteers help us to get that cleaned up and tidy up. So we would sit and put together a list of projects, send that either to Tia or directly to the organization that we've been paired up with, depending on the timing. And then it's simply a case for us just getting any bits and pieces of small equipment, gloves, trash bags, cleaning equipment. And sometimes volunteers come with that stuff in hand, which is even better. But yeah, it's not a significantly heavy lift for us. We are always busy, so it does take a couple of hours of organization. But in the grand scheme of things, it's a relatively easy thing for us, thanks to the organization of the community foundation.
Matt 14:48
Yeah. And what's like the day after that deep clean? How do you feel walking in?
Gary 14:52
Well, yeah right. It's similar to when you're at home, if you've figured out a project or you've gotten rid of some old equipment or a piece of, you know, I don't know, that old couch that's been down in your basement for a month. It certainly helps to give the building a refresh. And I think all the staff really benefit from it. As the executive director, my mindset, honestly, is these are services that we would otherwise have to pay for a private contractor to come in and do. So the volunteer work itself could have a value in the thousands of dollars for us, quite literally, sometimes more, depending on how many people show up. So being able to have the benefit of that labor without having to pay for it allows us to keep that revenue in the organization and to recycle it through even more programming for the benefit of the kids. So I'm always keen to try and keep as much money that we generate through donations or through grant funding or through our fee-based programs here at the club. We want to try to keep as much of that money within the club as we possibly can. So being able to have volunteers come in and do the work of a private contractor for a day, it's actually really impactful for us and allows us to maybe send another two or three kids to camp at no cost during the summer. So there is a real impact on the programming that we offer.
Matt 16:02
Great. And how about last year? Do you remember how many people you had come to help out? Do you remember any experiences with them? Like how many volunteers?
Gary 16:10
So I was not present for the C4 day last year, but I was here whenever Grace Chapel came in. C4, I think last year brought it was either 10 or 12 volunteers, and they were here for three or four hours. So again, you're talking about 30, 40 man hours of work that's getting done. Grace Chapel group similar in size. They would be here for a few hours, and it does a couple of things for us. And we try to do this obviously at times when we don't have kids in the building. So that's one of the key components, is when it happens. We've had groups that will come to the building during daytime hours midweek, or we have groups that will come in on the weekend because that's the schedule that works better for their volunteers, and we're obviously more than happy to open the building at any time. But it does a couple of things. It allows us to A, get the benefit of the work that they're doing, and B, gives us some exposure to those individuals so that they can learn about what the club does. You know, a lot of the volunteers they might work here in Watertown, but they maybe don't live in town or they haven't been to our club before. So being able to explain to them the various different programs that we offer, the services that we offer, the impact that the club makes. Our hope is that it'll stick with them. And even if they might live in another community, it might inspire them to donate to their local boys and girls club or volunteer there. Or, you know, we've had folks who work in town and they find out that we have a summer camp and they'll sign their kid up for summer camp in town here, and it works out great for them because it's in the city that they work in. So it has benefited us in a couple of ways. It allows us just to make better connections with individuals and organizations. So C4 are a group now that we've seen year after year, and they are very supportive of what we do, and we're thrilled to have them come back to us every year.
Matt 17:42
Yeah, it's nice to be building a connection with another organization in town.
Gary 17:46
Absolutely. Yeah, and I honestly I think that that's one of the amazing things that the Community Foundation has done. I can't tell you how many people I have been connected with through either a direct event through the foundation or that Tia has simply, out of courtesy, put us together because she feels that we may have some opportunity to collaborate. And that has happened multiple occasions, and I hope it'll continue to happen. So again, they do a wonderful job for the community, I feel.
Matt 18:09
Anything else to mention on the WHO connection or anything else that you want to put out there here?
Gary 18:15
No, I mean it's look, it's a big thing for us. It happens right bang in the middle of spring, so it is a great opportunity for us to get prepared, not just for the rest of the school year, which is fast approaching. I know summer feels like a long way away, but we're always thinking like at least two seasons ahead of time. So right now we're doing a lot of work in preparation for our upcoming summer camp, which will be running again from the day the kids get out of school until the day you go back. It's a particularly long summer this year because of where Labor Day falls. So we've got an essentially an 11-week camp program that's upcoming. So being able to get the building cleaned up, tidied up, and ready for that will be a big help to us. But we're excited to see our friends from C4 come back, and we hope that we may see some other volunteers come along our path. Even if it's not directly through Watertown Helps Out, the other thing that it can do is connect us with people who, you know, they may come back and help us in the fall or the winter. So just about making those connections, which we're delighted to be able to do.
Matt 19:07
Great. Well, thanks for sitting down and sharing your little connection here with Watertown Helps Out.
Gary 19:12
No problem. My pleasure. Great to see you again, Matt.
Matt 19:17
So I'm sitting here in C4 Therapeutics in one of their nice little quiet rooms here today, away from the labs.
Matt Forti 19:24
Yes.
Matt 19:25
And I'm here with two folks who help out with Watertown Helps Out. Do you want to introduce yourselves briefly?
Matt Forti 19:31
Sure. My name is Matt Forti, and I'm the Head of Facilities at C4 Therapeutics.
Alessandra 19:35
My name is Alessandra Arace, and I'm the Employee Experience Manager here at C4 Therapeutics. I've been here about two years now.
Matt 19:42
Great. And do you, one of you, want to just briefly explain what C4 is for people who are not familiar?
Alessandra 19:47
Yeah, so C4 Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotechnology company. Our science really focuses on our targeted protein degradation. And what that is, is an emerging modality that uses the body's natural protein recycling system to try and rapidly degrade disease-causing proteins. So we currently have one medicine in clinical trials to treat multiple myeloma, but we're excited to be exploring other therapeutic areas to treat inflammation, neuroinflammation, and also hopefully neurodegenerative diseases as well.
Matt 20:16
Great. So why we're here today is to talk about your involvement with the community. How did you start getting involved with Watertown Community Foundation, Watertown Helps Out, that whole program?
Matt Forti 20:25
So C4 has been affiliated with Watertown Helps Out since 2023. We do that in what we call a day of service, or service day, where we go out into the community, engage with a bunch of different nonprofits. So this would mark our fourth annual service day coming up on May 13th.
Matt 20:42
How have you been involved in the past in terms of numbers of people and how many projects you've done in the past?
Alessandra 20:48
Yeah, so we typically send about 75 to 85 employees out into the community, which is a great number because we are about 100 employees. And we even have several of our colleagues who live out of the state come in, fly in, travel in just for this event. So it's super special to our company as well as the community, which is great.
Matt Forti 21:04
And the kinds of things that we do out in the community, we're doing interior and exterior painting. We're doing invasive plant removal along the greenway, spring cleanup like raking, mulching, preparing garden beds, the grounds, filling pot we've filled potholes. And then there's other tasks like sorting, inventorying, a lot of different things like that. So really whatever the need is from the community. And Tia helps figure out what that need is at these different places too ahead of time.
Alessandra 21:34
It's also great because I feel like our employees, they all like to do different things. We definitely have a very diverse group. So it's great that there is something for everyone and something for the community to benefit from based on who we send out.
Matt 21:44
Yeah, so you guys get your group of people who are going to be involved and then Tia gives you a selection of programs. Is that how your coordination works?
Matt Forti 21:51
So our service day is typically mid-May. And she usually engages them to see what the appetite is from the different organizations and the kind of things they need. Then we start having phone calls with her and meetings. And then so it's funny, I'm going to veer off topic for a second. My aunt founded some veterans group homes and she has the blue chip company in her community that helps out. They do a similar thing. There's like 50 or 60 folks from this company that descend on her small little nonprofit. You know, and she wanted it to be meaningful work for those employees. She wanted to make sure she had enough to do. And I just always remember her having this sense of stress. She's like a conductor orchestrating all this work being done and spent a lot of time to make sure that these folks that are coming, that are donating their time, are doing work and they're kept busy. So that's always been in the back of my mind as we've started to do this.
Matt Forti 22:41
The first year we did this in 2023 went well. We did some lessons learned. We said, okay, the next time around that we do this, let's engage more with these different nonprofits because, you know, these folks have limited resources, both in funding and in manpower. And they might not have the skill set or the folks that have the skill set on their payroll that can help with some of these things. So sometimes they don't even know what they need. You know, they may think they need one thing, they chat with us on the phone, we'll go out and take a field trip, we'll do a walk with them, we'll engage with them, and then we'll realize together, oh, wait, you need X, Y, and Z. And we talk through it and we build a job plan. And that's been invaluable. And then they're not sure sometimes what we're capable of. And we walk in there, and like Alessandra said, we know our folks. So we know, okay, we got folks that like to paint, we get folks that can fill potholes, we get folks that know how to rake, and then we get folks that maybe are better at like doing Excel spreadsheets and inventorying stuff and are really organized. So we have a very diverse group of folks. And it's nice because as we go out, we realize, okay, there's a job for everyone. We don't have enough people to do enough of the things that need to be done.
Matt Forti 23:50
So we go out, I don't know, we do this probably over the course of a month, go to all these different places. And it's nice to put names with faces, it's nice to engage with them, it's nice to meet all the folks. And, you know, we go to the Boys and Girls Club, we get to see how they interact with the students and stuff like that. And then we help them develop that job plan over the course of a couple months, maybe until service day. So that's been pretty helpful. And then some partners in the past that we've worked with that we still do today. So Perkins is one of them, Boys and Girls Club, and the Watertown Community Gardens who work on the Greenway, which is actually behind our building, part of the path. Those are three that we've worked with for it'll be our fourth year since we've been doing this. And then, you know, others come in and out depending on their needs and what they have going on. This year we're doing Perkins, Watertown Department of Human Services, the Watertown Community Gardens, the Boys and Girls Club, the Commander's Mansion, the Housing Authority, the Center for the Arts, and possibly an additional one. We're still working through the planning process, again, doing all different types of jobs at those different places. So.
Matt 24:54
Yeah So a nice wide variety.
Matt Forti 24:56
Yeah, yeah. It's appealing to our folks too.
Matt 24:57
Yeah. So how about a question of why? Why does your company do this day?
Alessandra 25:02
Yeah, I would say we're very people focused. So we're actually headquartered right here in Watertown. And we were one of the first biotechs to join the community once we moved here back in 2018. So we've really been able to see the growth of the industry over the past eight years that we've been here. And we've been able to see the community also transform throughout that, since we are located right here in Watertown. So we want to be able to be part of what makes Watertown special. And Watertown Helps Out as one of the ways that we can do that. So we like to be committed each and every year.
Matt 25:31
How about any particular impact story, like stories of on-the-ground experiences from the past years?
Matt Forti 25:38
So I can tell you, this isn't one personally for me, but for one of our folks, this was a couple years ago. I don't remember which exactly location it was at, but it was an outdoor event. And, you know, we had met with them. We had talked about the different jobs we can do. We were doing stuff outside with weeding gardens and moving garden beds and building them and doing all things like that. And when they saw one of our folks pull up in a pickup truck, their eyes just like they were just beaming because they had a need to do stuff that would involve a pickup truck, moving bigger, heavier things or awkward things, driving it around. Although we had walked the site and talked about things we could do, you know, we never mentioned that we've been in a pickup truck, right? But when she saw that, she pivoted and asked that if we could do a couple things. And so that day, a couple of people transitioned and did things that were involved with that truck that helped them out. But that person didn't have the funding to get a truck, you know, and it's a different kind of thing to rent a truck, right? It's not like renting a car. And you have to rent something like that, you're gonna get it dirty, and it's not the same thing. So when they saw that someone came with a truck, they jumped on it, they were ecstatic.
Matt Forti 26:41
I can tell you that after we do this day of service, all the employees come back to the site. We have a lunch, a later lunch in our cafeteria. And I will say that people are just beaming. They just feel really good. They feel like they've really accomplished something, they've gone out into the community, they've helped. And you just see people interacting with each other, telling stories, telling what it was like at their site that they were at today, the things they got to do, how they saw the look on the folks' faces, that they could be of service and help them.
Matt Forti 27:13
And then I was at the housing authority a couple years ago. We were cleaning out garden beds and stuff like that. And I don't think it was the plan that the residents were going to come out and actually participate in that. But when they saw us descend on that place and they saw us take our tools out, our rakes out, and start cleaning up, there was a bunch of them that jumped in and then we teamed up with them in pairs and partners. It was explained to us, you know, they saw us doing it, then they wanted to do it, and there was a big sense of pride on their end too. And it was nice working with them, and they were very appreciative. Everyone's always very appreciative, but everyone just feels really good about helping out. This is an event our folks look forward to. And so it means a lot to the employees, it means a lot to the culture of the company to give back. And it's one of my personal favorite days at the company. It's a great day.
Alessandra 27:58
Yeah, just to add to that, I feel like it's embedded in our organization now. Like Matt said, it's something that we do every single year. And I feel like honestly, C4 wouldn't really be the same without it.
Matt 28:07
Great. Well, thank you for putting in your effort to help out Watertown. And thanks for being part of this little conversation today.
Matt Forti 28:14
Thank you for listening to us.
Alessandra 28:16
Yes, thank you.
Tia 28:20
This year, we're in the process right now where we're collecting projects, trying to work with our nonprofits to see what they have on deck, how can they support it? Because they're busy, they're doing, they're delivering on their mission. And sometimes it's hard to look around and say, oh yeah, if I just had time to do that thing, I could bring in 10 people to do it, but they have to staff it, they have to get it organized, and we recognize that. So right now we're working with nonprofits to help them lift their heads up from the good work they're doing to say, okay, if you had 10 people for two hours, what's on your dream list to get done? We'll post those projects to the community April 1st, and then we'll open it up for volunteers to sign up. They can come to our website and sign up. You can sign up for projects all the way into May because we'll be bringing on new projects. And some projects fill up. One that's really popular is river cleanup with the Charles River Conservancy. Happens every year that fills up almost instantly. Perkins needs help with their plant sale on May 6th. But we've got to get those volunteers signed up by April 30th. So look for those lists early because there's some great projects beginning in May that you'll miss out on if you wait to think, oh, who starts in May? Uh-uh.
Matt 29:31
Gotcha. So talking to someone who's listening and is just a resident of the city, why should they get involved with WHO?
Tia 29:38
When you get involved in Watertown Helps Out, this is a great way to meet people across the city. And sometimes outside the city. Sometimes people just want to get involved. And this is a really unique project. I'm unaware of any other community that runs this. When I talk with our cohort of community foundations across the state, they both look at really you do that? And oh, what a great idea. Because they understand how resource intensive it is to do this. It's a great way to meet your neighbors. It's a great way to get outside. You know, we've all been cooped up this winter because a lot of these are outdoor projects. There are indoor projects, there are projects that don't take lifting and digging. And it's a great way to connect with other institutions in the city so you know what's here. And it's a lot of fun. And you got a great t-shirt. I mean, come on, what's not to love here?
Matt 30:23
So, looking forward with WHO, what are some of the areas so you can see opportunity for growth going forward?
Tia 30:30
I would love to see. I think about the Whitney Hill neighbors. And I was chatting with someone about a year ago who was asking the question about how does Watertown define their neighborhoods? You know, what are the names of the neighborhoods? And I think that's a great question. I think there's actually some urban planning tools to help communities understand that. But I think that there are a few areas of Watertown where they see themselves as neighborhoods, and others don't yet have that identity. I think there's a real opportunity. Neighbors can come together and say, hey, could we submit a project for WHO to do, you know, whatever need they see in this community? And of course, sometimes that's in partnership with the city. We work very closely with the city on this. They've been terrific partners, whether it's working with facilities or the Commander's Mansion or the library or our public arts and culture community, work with them to do city improvement, city beautification that benefits all of us. And I think that could happen at the neighborhood level as well.
Matt 31:24
So if you have an idea, talk to your neighbor. Then talk to Tia.
Tia 31:27
Talk to your neighbor. That's a great idea. Talk to your neighbor, right. And you know, I think the city is doing projects like Porchfest, which is coming out of incredible volunteer work, where that brings neighbors out and has neighbors talking to one another. And that goes back to our very first grants. Our very first grants were block parties. And these are modest grants for people that are organizing a block party, 200 for your first time and 100 if you've done it before, to bring neighbors together to connect one another. Because that comes down to our basic mission. We exist to support the vibrancy of this community today and tomorrow. We do that with the investment of the community in our work, and we turn it right back around and we reinvest it in the community.
Matt 32:08
Great. Awesome. So, where should people go to find out what's going on, what projects they can get involved with, what's the steps to get involved and keep up to date with everything?
Tia 32:19
So, for people to get involved and volunteer, what you need to do is go to the Watertown Foundation website, watertownfoundation.org, and you'll see Watertown Helps Out there. And you can sign up right on our website. You'll see the various projects, you'll see the dates, you'll see the requirements. So if it's an outdoor project, you know, if you need to be lift 20 pounds or whatnot. So if you got a bad back, don't sign up for that one. But there's other ones that are indoor that don't require heavy lifting. So you'll be able to see what fits for you, fits for your family, fits for your schedule. And we will do signups all the way through the end of May. Projects will continue to come online and you'll have opportunity to volunteer for more than one. And you know, if it's rain dates, we'll reschedule. There's a pretty comprehensive communication plan with volunteers. It's a lot of fun. Go to our website, watertownfoundation.org, and you'll see all the different ways to sign up.
Matt 33:10
Great. Well, thank you, Tia, for sitting down, give all this information. Is there anything else you want to leave with about anything to do with WHO, with the foundation, anything?
Tia 33:19
Oh, that's great, Matt. Thank you so much for this opportunity to talk about this. It's a lot of fun. And I'm always amazed and surprised and touched and moved by what happens in this month. I cannot emphasize it enough. I had a nonprofit say to me over December when we were putting out our essential needs grants. We were all coming through this difficulty of making sure people had enough food to eat in November, December. We followed that up with another tranche of grants to organizations to support rent, because we knew that not only did people need support for food, they also needed support for housing. And one of the nonprofit EDs said to me, Watertown is unique in the type of support we provide for our community. And the community foundation takes the lead in providing that funding out there, but this is just a reflection of who we are. In May, Watertown Helps Out is one of the many ways that the rubber meets the road. So I really encourage people to get involved and meet some like-minded, fun people doing some great work for the community. And you can find all the information you need at WatertownFoundation.org.
Matt 34:23
Great. Well thank you.
Tia 34:24
Thank you, Matt. This has been great. I really appreciate it.
Matt 34:30
So that's it for this Helping Hand episode. If you want to find out more about Watertown Helps Out, head on over to WatertownFoundation.org. There you can sign up to volunteer, see all the opportunities there are, and help give back to the Watertown community. And if you want to hear more episodes of the podcast, discover more the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown, head on over to LittleLocalConversations.com. I have all the episodes, I can see upcoming events, and you can sign up for my weekly newsletter there. All over at LittleLocalConversations.com.
Matt 35:01
And I want to thank again Watertown Savings Bank for being the sponsor of the Helping Hands series. So I'm going to read their little message. We would like to say that we are proud to sponsor this series you are producing and appreciate the work that you do for the community. As a 155-year-old community bank, Watertown Savings Bank is honored to be such an integral part of the incredible Watertown community, working alongside all the amazing organizations in the city. In addition to our five Watertown locations, we also serve Waltham, Belmont, Arlington, Lexington, and Newton. For more information on Watertown Savings, please visit our website, WatertownSavings.com. Thank you, Watertown Savings Bank. You can listen to the last episode I actually did with Kelly Cronin and Kristy Walter, who run the Club 50 at Watertown Savings. Great folks.
Matt 35:45
All right, and I want to give a few shout outs here to wrap things up. I want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council, who have given me a grant this year to help support the podcast. So I want to give them the appropriate credit, which is, this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Find out more about them at WatertownCulturalCouncil.org and MassCulturalCouncil.org. And a couple more shout-outs to promotional partners. First, the Watertown Business Coalition. Their motto is Community Is Our Business. Find out more about them at WatertownBusinessCoalition.com. And lastly, Watertown News, which is a Watertown focused online newspaper. It's a great place to keep up to date with everything going on in the city. Check that out at WatertownMANews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.
