Several Boston-based businesses are planning to give back to the community in honor of the third annual One Boston Day.
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh began the tradition of One Boston Day in 2015 as a way to honor the victims of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing by encouraging locals to perform random acts of kindness in order to demonstrate the city’s strength and resilience, according to a March 22 press release from the mayor’s office.
One Boston Day makes use of social media websites to maximize community involvement, according to the release. #OneBostonDay trended on social media last year, garnering over 77,000 posts in recognition of the celebration.
The city will continue its social media presence on One Boston Day in 2017 by using a special website where residents can post on social media using the hashtags #OneBostonDay and #BeBoston, according to the release.
Residents are encouraged to use the website to share how they will give back to the Boston community this April 15 and show their support on social media using the One Boston Day logos, according to the release.
New Wave Boston Real Estate announced its plans to donate 25 percent of its rental earnings from April 10 through April 14 to the New England Center and Home for Veterans in honor of this year’s One Boston Day, according to a March 23 press release.
Joel Mundele, co-founder and principal broker of New Wave Boston, said the company hopes to use its role as a real estate agency to give back to the community on this occasion.
“Our jobs as real estate agents [are] to help people find homes,” Mundele said, adding that the high population of homeless veterans around its offices contributed to the agency’s decision to partner with the New England Center and Home for Veterans.
This is the first time New Wave Real Estate will be participating in One Boston Day, Mundele said, but the agency hopes to continue to be a part of future One Boston Days.
El Pelón Taqueria, a Mexican restaurant with two locations in Boston, donated one dollar from every burrito sold on One Boston Day last year to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, and are planning to do the same this year, said Jim Hoben, the owner of El Pelón Taqueria.
Hoben said this is the most public in a long series of donations from El Pelón Taqueria to MIRA.
“Everybody’s an immigrant,” Hoben said. “We’ve been supporting them … maybe five years, and it’s [even] more important now.”
El Pelón Taqueria chose to be involved with One Boston Day because they were open on the day of the bombing and had a lot of customers come in after the explosion, Hoben said.
Because of this, Hoben said he sees One Boston Day as “an opportunity to be part of the community and help out,” as well as a reminder of how the city rallied together in 2013.
Pine Street Inn, a shelter and resource center for Boston’s homeless community, also partnered with a local Whole Foods to host a dry cereal drive in honor of One Boston Day last year, according to Barbara Trevisan, the communications director for Pine Street Inn.
Trevisan stressed the importance of One Boston Day in the Pine Street Inn’s community relations.
“[The cereal drive] was a way for Pine Street to interact with the community,” Trevisan wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press. “Cereal is a basic staple that we use in our shelters every day.”
The Pine Street Inn will continue its involvement this year by organizing special volunteer groups for One Boston Day, Trevisan wrote.
Several Boston residents shared their experiences from the day of the Boston Marathon bombing and praised the city’s One Boston Day initiative.
Justin Donkor, 29, of Jamaica Plain, who was working at Marshalls about a mile away from the blast site on the day of the bombing, said Bostonians “should be proud” of the way local businesses and employees came together after the attack.
“It’s a good thing for different businesses to recognize the terrorist act with their employees and customers,” Donkor said.
Zachary Winter, 23, of Allston, who watched the bombing on the news after hearing about it through word-of-mouth, said One Boston Day is an effective way for the city to show its support of those who witnessed the atrocity.
“I think [a day of unity] would be helpful for those who were actually involved in the incident in general,” Winter said.
Qvgeniy Dolzhenkov, 46, of Brighton, said while he hopes nothing like the Boston Marathon bombings ever happens again, togetherness promotes strength in the aftermath of the tragedy.
“We have to stay together,” Dolzhenkov said of the Boston community. “We have to focus [on being] positive. We have to trust more people who want to help.”
Sabrina Schnur contributed to the reporting of this article.
