Editor’s observe: Summertime Hours is a photograph collection concentrating on UB staff members users who use the more time times to pursue intriguing hobbies, brings about and other endeavors outdoors of their working day jobs.
What started out as an random advertisement in his social media newsfeed has considering the fact that develop into a resourceful enthusiasm and major fundraising instrument. This summertime, Douglas Levere, photograph/video clip supervisor for University Communications, is employing his expertise for making individual Neapolitan pizzas to raise income for Roswell Park Complete Cancer Middle.
“I adore earning pizza and have observed it to be a amazing way to get close friends to donate to Roswell Park,” Levere clarifies.
UBNow caught up with Levere on a late June evening at Community Espresso + Espresso in the Resort Lafayette in downtown Buffalo. Forty pre-folded pizza packing containers are stacked in the corner. The oven warms close by, substances completely ready for the assembly line of pizza-generating. Some of the ingredients have been donated by big food items suppliers, as properly as pals.
“To me, it’s a artistic outlet you’ll hardly ever make the very same pizza 2 times,” suggests Levere, dressed in an apron and Roswell cap. His personalized favourite is a goat cheese, mozzarella and rosemary pizza — and sure, it is on the menu. “That rosemary, when it will get in the warm oven, it just has this actually wonderful fragrance,” he suggests.
Levere is fundraising for his next Empire State Journey, a 500-plus-mile, weeklong journey from New York City to Niagara Falls. The 2021 function has over 225 riders who have so much elevated much more than $1.4 million for cancer analysis at Roswell Park, in accordance to the most cancers heart. (Editor’s note: The trip is presently underway riders commenced on July 25 and will be reaching Niagara Falls on July 31.)
With 3 pizza fundraisers in late spring, as perfectly as other attempts, Levere had elevated almost $8,000 by mid-July. But his intention is continuously altering, as his pizza occasions maintain marketing out.
“People adore his do the job,” states UB alumnus and adjunct faculty member Andrew Galarneau, who is also the foodstuff editor and restaurant critic for The Buffalo Information, as very well as Levere’s friend for more than 30 yrs.
Galarneau laughs when he recounts how committed Levere is to pizza-creating — no matter whether it is transport in his pizza oven by freight from abroad, or endlessly performing to excellent his dough recipe. “I’m in awe of what he has completed,” Galarneau claims.
Levere has taken aspect in gatherings for Roswell for about 10 a long time, and says it is because of, in portion, to his very own family’s practical experience. His mom was diagnosed with breast most cancers in the late 1980s. Immediately after receiving treatment method close to her Prolonged Island property, her cancer stayed in remission for 20 years.
“It’s just phenomenal, what one man or woman could do to transform so numerous people’s lives,” Levere reported of the fundraising initiatives. “You know that your dollars is heading to a fantastic bring about.”
Douglas Levere, a UB alumnus, has worked in College Communications given that 2005. He is also caption of UB’s Experience for Roswell Spirit group and welcomes all riders to sign up for the team on Aug. 7. Levere is however accepting donations for his 2021 Empire Experience.