If you’re looking to help in the Covid-19 crisis, here’s another: Customers have been buying games from Main St. Board Game Cafe to donate to hospitals besieged by the Covid-19 epidemic.
Neil Goldberg, owner of the downtown Huntington cafe, said the first contributor spent $5,000 to buy games as gifts to ER personnel and pediatric play areas.
That was soon followed by a second, matching purchase.
Receiving games will be Huntington Hospital, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, NYU-Winthrop in Mineola and Sunrise Day Camps In-Hospital Program.
“It just fell in our lap,” Goldberg said, with a customer calling to make the first $5,000 purchase. “The people at the hospital deserve to have a little fun. It’s something where our community came to us. It’s kind of amazing.”
The cafe, which opened last April, is now running a campaign to boost donations. Contributions can be made at www.mainstboardgamecafe.com, on the phone at 631-729-0060, or email [email protected]
Like the massive food-donation campaign Huntington Hospital Meals created by Theresa Sullivan, the project provides a two-edged benefit: contributions to those who are working to defeat the epidemic, and support for local businesses hit hard by the shutdown.
When restaurants and bars were ordered to shut indoor service, the cafe did so but kept open its game sales, now through curbside pickup.
