WESTFIELD – Visitors to the Citgo gas station on North Elm Street Saturday morning were greeted by the smiling face of Lauren Kuhn, Miss Massachusetts 2014, who was on hand to help spur donations to the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).
For more than a decade, Citgo and corporate marketer L.E. Belcher, Inc., have given customers the opportunity to purchase $1 holiday-themed paper mobiles to help support to the local MDA chapter.
As MDA’s largest corporate sponsor, Citgo has raised more than $160 million since 1986 to help provide health care services for MDA families nationwide and to rally local communities to raise awareness and help find treatments and cures for neuromuscular disease. The Citgo partnership with the Miss America Organization provides a platform to address important issues, including health, well-being and education.
Kuhn, a 23-year old Boston resident, is a second year Doctor of Dental Medicine student at Harvard University, and was on hand to push Westfield over the top against other Citgo locations.
“The Citgo locations are competing to try to raise the most money and right now it’s very close,” she said on Saturday.
Paul Morrissey, regional manager of retail operations for Citgo, said that these locations have been competing against each other for as long as he’s been working for the company.
“Our Chicopee location is at $16,073 and this location is at $16,032 as of Thursday,” said Morrissey. “As a chain, we’ve done $11,000 since Thanksgiving and last year we did $16,000.”
“I think it’s great that we help kids. We’re sending kids to summer camp, paying for research, it’s a good cause,” he said.
“I don’t know anyone personally who has muscular dystrophy but as a dental student, I take all of the classes at the medical school and have learned a lot about the various types of muscular dystrophy,” she said.
“To see videos of patients, to meet them and see how it affects their lives, it is really troublesome to think how easy it can be to forget about because we don’t personally have it,” Kuhn added. “It’s a really good cause and I’m happy to be a part of it.”
