Mariucci Family Beacon House raises over $550,000 at annual ‘Grill & Chill’ fundraiser

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN) — The Mariucci Family Beacon House held their annual fundraiser ‘Grill & Chill’ Thursday night and have an update on how much money was raised. Their goal was $200,000. They raised more than double that amount, totaling $557,500.

Mary Tavernini Dowling, CEO of the Beacon House says this tremendous support will help them pay off the loan from the construction of their building.

“We still have a little bit of an outstanding construction loan because there are many pledges that were pledged toward that,” said Tavernini Dowling. “So if we were to get all those pledges today, we could pay the loan off, but they’re spaced over a series of years. To be able to use this money now to pay the loan off and then those pledges will come in, will help us with operations. That’s a dream come true for a charity like ours.”

“We want the Beacon House to be here forever, and this has put us in a great financial position
with our construction debt on the new Beacon House,” said Steve Mariucci in a press release. “We intend to pay off our debt, and continue to focus on caring for our guests in all the great ways we do.”

“We will be able to focus on all of the things that we do and that we want to do by not having those interest payments on that loan payment,” added Tavernini Dowling. “Those funds will go right to all of the guest services. So probably the most obviously, other than having a beautiful, safe, affordable place to lay your head at night, there’s some wonderful creature comforts in this house like the kitchen and dining room, be able to keep that refrigerator stocked, to be able to continue to prepare hot meals every day for our guests. Those are things that are just super important to us because we see what an impact they make.”

To learn more about the Beacon House or support their cause, click here .

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