Our Lady’s Pantry Receives a New Refrigerated Truck

For several years now, Our Lady’s Pantry has had two trucks on the road picking up food from all over the county almost every day of the week. These trucks are essential to the Pantry’s work, according to Pantry director Tom Bullaro. Regrettably, the trucks were old, with a total of 420,000 miles on them, so expensive to maintain. The 2006 truck, in fact, had been on the road for 280,000 miles.

“But now, thanks to a surprising gift from a former volunteer — plus a huge community effort piggybacking on this gift — we have finally replaced our old truck,” says Bullaro, pointing to the brand new 2023 Isuzu refrigerated truck sitting in the Pantry’s parking lot. “Not only will this truck not require continuous costly maintenance to keep it on the road weekly, but it is safer and easier to drive.”

In hopes that the Pantry might initiate a fund specifically to save for a replacement truck, Bullaro placed a request within a news story with local newspapers last year.

“The story inspired a tremendous response from dozens of individuals and several groups sending in both small and large donations solely to fund a replacement truck,” Bullaro

By Francine Webb

Not all collections need to have value. A few years ago, while watching GMA, I was intrigued by a news segment about college students collecting Absolut ads, as they found the printed ads amusing. Librarians had to guard their magazines from being “the-absolute” and a Madison Avenue newsstand razored the ads from its stock to sell them for a profit. This was enough to peak my curiosity! I started searching for Absolut ads and had to admire the ingenuity and sense of humor of these ads.

The ad campaign ran from 1981-1996 regaling in its longevity and its ingenuity. The 500+ ads won hundreds of awards and included a variety of themes from art, fashion, cities, Christmas, etc. In 1981, 20,000 cases of Absolut were imported to the U.S. but by 1996, sales says. He added that the Pantry never uses money donated for food for any purpose other than food.

“Regrettably, the dollars for the truck didn’t come close to what was needed.”

And then, one ordinary day in October, 2021, everything changed!

“I was working at the Pantry one morning when Betsy

Schneider, one of our former long-time volunteers, stopped in to visit,” says Bullaro. “As we got chatting, she told me that her brother, Tony, (Joseph Anthony O’Reilly), had passed away. I knew Tony because he had volunteered at the Pantry in the past, too.

As it happens, when Tony worked here, we still had our first little old box truck, which he remembered. Before he died, he had told his three sisters that if anything were ever to happen to him, he wanted them to give the Pantry $60,000 from his estate to use towards a new truck!

“This stunning donation was one of the biggest surprises of my life,” says Bullaro. “I did the calculations in my head immediately. Along with the generous donations we had already received from the community, I knew immediately that we could order a new truck!” topped three million dollars, an increase of 14,900%!

Some historical background – in 1879, Lars Olsson Smith created a new distillation process, refining the product which was distilled in AHUS (pronounced Or-hoos), a picturesque port town on the Baltic Sea in southern Sweden. The advantages to producing vodka are threefold: few ingredients are required, no aging is needed, and the quality is irrelevant as consumers use mixers. By the late 70s, it was clear that to survive, Absolut had to export its product to remain open… thus America!

In 1978, a delegation visited leading U.S. distillers who found fault with the bottle design, product name or Swedish origin. Carillon

Importers, a small N.Y liquor importer headed by Al Singer (a gambler and sharp businessman open to just about anything), was then approached. After several trips to Sweden, he finalized the product and packaging. Unlike most liquor bottles with long necks and square shoulders, Absolut bottles have short necks and round shoulders. Other bottles featured a paper label while Absolut printed the entire label directly on the bottle in bold, colorful type. Bartenders disliked the bottle as it was clear, thus would disappear on the back bar and the short neck made it difficult to grab.

Production of the bottle was a challenge as creating it in Plexiglas was technically impossible, but a French perfumery proved it could be done. TBWA was selected for marketing, deciding that Absolut would be a product that could laugh at itself – avoiding the pretentious “we’re the best” claims of other ads. The first ad designed read “Absolut. It’s the Perfect Vodka” but sketch partners asked why not just say “Absolut Perfection”? And so, the format of just two words emerged with “Absolut” always first.

The first three ads were a disaster as the bottles were cartoon-like and appeared to be filled with milk. Unknown photographer, Steve Bronstein, was hired based on his sample portfolio. Lighting was a problem so instead of shooting the bottle in front of a black background, he placed a sheet of matte Plexiglas behind it and lit it with a soft glow. It worked! The bottle was now perfectly round and clear.

During its 15-year advertising heyday, Absolut used printed media only – never television ads! Absolutely Amazing!