BonaResponds Gets New Trailer

BonaResponds, St. Bonaventure University’s volunteer disaster-relief organization, is usually the one riding to the rescue of people in need.

But on Wednesday, James Mahar Jr., associate professor of finance at St. Bonaventure and founder of BonaResponds, found his group on the receiving end, taking delivery of a new, light-weight, aluminum flatbed trailer won in a national contest – a contest Mahar didn’t even know his group was entered in.

The chain of events began last fall when Olean pharmacist Vic Vena, a longtime friend of the university, went online to register for a warranty for a Featherlite trailer he had just bought from a Rochester-area dealership. While he was filling in the form online, a pop-up promotion offered the chance to enter Featherlite’s national “Win 1, Give 1” trailer contest. “So I clicked on it,” said Vena.

He was asked to nominate a non-profit organization that could use a Featherlite trailer. Vena thought immediately of BonaResponds.

BonaResponds was formed in 2006 when nearly 300 St. Bonaventure and community volunteers went to the Gulf Coast to help recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina. It was the largest service trip in the history of the university. The organization has since made repeated return trips to the Gulf and has answered calls for assistance from Buffalo to Alabama, and all across Western New York.

Vena had spearheaded his own hurricane relief effort to aid employees of a sister pharmacy in the New Orleans area who had lost their homes, and he was familiar with the work of BonaResponds through his good friend and retired St. Bonaventure University accounting professor Larry Orisini, who has been active with the group since its formation.

“Larry would often say to me, ‘Man, we could get so much more done if we only had a trailer,’” said Vena.

So in his nominating essay, Vena described BonaResponds’ long record of service and the commitment of students who sacrifice their breaks and vacations to go on relief missions, then noted that the group is “rich in spirit, but poor in resources,” and could “really, really, really use a trailer.”

Mahar only learned about the contest when Vena called him just before Christmas to tell him that BonaResponds had won. Mahar and student volunteers were on hand Wednesday to accept delivery of the trailer from Dean Davis of Davis Trailer World near Rochester, a Featherlite dealer.

“This is going to make such a difference,” said Mahar, noting transportation is one of the group’s biggest challenges. “Sometimes we have to decide between taking people or supplies to a job site, and now we can take both. This is exactly what we needed.”

St. Bonaventure senior Rob Ryer, a senior physical education major from Lockport who has made eight service trips with BonaResponds, said the trailer is more than a vehicle for hauling goods to job sites.

Said Ryer, “This new trailer will not only help transport the tools needed to change the lives of the individuals and families we touch, but will also help transport those we touch into the next chapter of their lives, a better chapter.”

Pictured, Olean pharmacist Vic Vena and his wife, Bonnie, stand next to the trailer won for BonaResponds. On the trailer (from left) are Dean Davis of Davis Trailer World; SBU students Rob Ryer and Phil Penepent; and Dr. James Mahar Jr., finance professor and BonaResponds founder.