Planning is underway for Boscov’s 27th annual Friends Helping Friends event

Boscov’s is inviting nonprofits to register for the department store chain’s 27th annual Friends Helping Friends one-day fundraising event. This year’s Friends Helping Friends is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 18 at all Boscov’s stores across the company’s geographic footprint.

“Each year, over 3,000 nonprofit organizations participate in this event and raise over $2 million in donations,” Jim Boscov, chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “It’s our most aggressive promotion of the year and we do it to encourage donations to the organizations so critical to the communities we serve.”

Nonprofit 501c and 170c1 organizations can register to participate in the event by visiting www.boscovs.com/friendshelpingfriends to complete the registration form and request Friends Helping Friends customer shopping passes from Boscov’s.

During the registration process, each organization will indicate how many shopping passes it would like. Once registered, packets will immediately be available for pickup and will include the requested number of shopping passes, according to a fact sheet on the Friends Helping Friends website.

The nonprofits then sell those $5 passes to their supporters, keeping 100% of the $5 donation. Organizations are urged to begin selling their passes as soon as they get them, and they are welcome to sell passes within Boscov’s stores, the company said.

To participate in Friends Helping Friends on Oct. 18, customers will show their shopping pass while at the Boscov’s in-store event between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. and will receive 25% off the chain’s lowest sale prices.

In a video posted on Boscov’s Friends Helping Friends website, Boscov said the company supporting local nonprofit organizations has been a “core value of our family.”

“I’m very proud of the Boscov’s community for this special tradition. We look forward to supporting your nonprofits through a fun shopping day filled with great deals,” he said in the video.

Last year’s Friends Helping Friend event resulted in nonprofit partners receiving more than $2 million worth of shopping passes.

Boscov’s is headquarted in Exeter Township, Berks County, and operates 49 stores in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Ohio. The company has 26 stores in Pennsylvania, including eight in Berks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. In February, the retailer announced plans for its 50th store in Bridgeport, W.Va., which is expected to open in the fall.