Plainville, Connecticut (December 21, 2018)—The entire staff of Manafort Brothers Inc. brightened the holidays for local children in need by donating 100 new bicycles to the United States Marines Toys for Tots program to commemorate the company’s 100th anniversary. The Marines picked up all of the bikes at the company headquarters in Plainville on December 13 and distributed them to area towns. 

The tradition was started by Jake Vandrilla, a former head mechanic and U.S. Marine, who worked at Manafort Brothers for more than 40 years. Although Vandrilla passed away a few years ago, the company honors his legacy by continuing the popular charitable drive.

“Each year since 1997, our employees have generously contributed to our companywide Toys for Tots collection, and in 2007, we began dedicating the drive to purchasing new bikes,” explained Jim Manafort Jr, president of Manafort Brothers Inc. “This year, our various generous affiliates, vendors, family and friends helped us reach our collection goal by donating 50 bikes.”  

Contributing companies that helped make this season’s bike donation so successful include: New England Industrial, Big Sky Fitness, U.S. Ecology, SilPro, Pro-Teck LLC, The Bar on Cedar, Engineered Product Sales, Independent Pipe, Mike Alessandra Masonry, Manafort Precision, D. Brescia Construction, Red Technologies LLC CWPM, Public Market of Newington and Milwaukee Tool.

For more information, visit manafort.com