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Thank you for making the gala

a huge success!

Many friends and neighbors from concord and carlisle joined together for an evening of fun and games to celebrate the support that the community chest gives to the local agencies that it serves.

The event raised over $25,000 to help neighbors in need!

photos courtesy of Bonnie Baker Photography

NEW! View the Community Chest Video Below

Featured Agency
New Community Outreach and Youth Coordinators
With grants from the Concord-Carlisle Community Chest, Sudbury Foundation and the Foundation for MetroWest, Youth Services Director Erin Duggan was hired in January to support youth, parents and families.  Duggan is a Concord resident and prior assistant district attorney and advocate.  She has begun working closely with schools, residents, town organizations and local mental health agencies to provide resources and increase youth involvement in the community. Learn More»

Fifty years ago, if you didn't donate to the Community Chest, a neighbor would come knocking at your door. For 10 days during October citizens fanned out across town in search of funds to service those in need. It took such a spirited sense of community to create the Concord Community Chest in 1947.

Winthrop Lee, one of the four founding members, recalls it was Morgan Smith who had the idea to break away from the regional Red Feather Campaign, the predecessor to the United Way. Red Feather balked at Concord's forming its own group, but the local leaders could not be dissuaded. Past Board president Mary Johnson, whose husband was a founder, said accountability was a key reason for the change. 'When you gave locally you knew where your money was going,' she says. In the end, Red Feather became one of the seven agencies funded by the Concord Community Chest that first year. Lee says Emerson Hospital was the primary beneficiary, receiving 88 percent of the funds. Learn More»