In this Heartware Story we head to Copiague, New York to hear how Costello’s Ace supports Kids Need More. See how Ace employee Al, goes above and beyond for this local non-profit.

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[Music] There's not enough superlatives for Al Littmann of Costello's Ace Hardware of Coping the man is an angel on Earth John came into the store one day and Asked to speak to the manager and was Like hey can we use your parking lot to Show a drive-in movie And I took a step back I was like what Whoever heard of it doing a drive-in Movie in a parking lot Kids need more is about providing fun And friendship to Children coping with The trauma of serious illness throughout Their hardships in 2020 when the world Was shut down due to that terrible Pandemic it shut our funding sources Down we had no live events for funding And it shut our services down we Couldn't have camps during all that so We took to Al and we came up with the Idea of doing this great service for the Community driving movies a great way to Take your family out it doesn't cost you Almost anything you can come for a Donation of any amount come on in to the Kids Drive-in movie night August was the first one we did and it Was a beautiful night and people had Their pickup trucks they were sitting in The back of the pickup trucks it was Ridiculous we had 60 something on cars Out there we put up a tent and we had a

Little Weber going with hot dogs we ran Out of hot dogs and we didn't have Popcorn the first night and it was like We gotta get the popcorn machine and we Made it and it just it just grew we Figured we'd just do it for the pandemic But people enjoyed it so much so we kept Doing it by popular demand and I was Instrumental in making that happen the Crew comes out just to help they Volunteer their time they all have his Back and they know that he has theirs They're not just helpful hardware folks They're really good-hearted folks who Care The first time I went to the camp and There were kids there that weren't sick And they were like well Mom's in the Hospital and Mom's really sick and these Kids need a break No dad needed to not worry We lost the Sun a year ago and it's good Knowing that there's people that still Care and want to be there for them they Like to help you live there for you and Those will be what Al has done here with Kids need more lines with the values of Our company my father instilled in us in A very young age to give back the value Of people is is so much greater than the Value of a product or money I'm very Lucky to work for a company that lets me Do what I do because never anywhere Either worked has allowed me to do as

Much for the community as this place Does every movie night since it started I was paid out of pocket for all the Food that's grilled from Ace and that's Over two years and won't say to anybody That's just like his way of giving back More everything is a dollar lady comes Up there with five bucks and that's all They have to spend and the kids it's Like Christmas for them they're picking Out a piece of candy in this Don't look on their faces is worth it All we were at the concession and we Were talking to Al and uh this guy was More interested in the forklift than the Movie And Al was very kind to take him back And show him the forklift I was like so Excited I drove it but I didn't make it Go forward or backwards I was definitely A celebrity amongst the kids they all Know who Al is I think he's a cool guy He's great and he gives back to the Community in every way that he can Anything involving this town Ace is the First name that pops up and you know Al's behind all of it oh my Lord Lord watch out we've raised well over Thirteen thousand dollars doing the Driving so we can't do what we do Without wonderful folks like Costello's Ace Hardware childhood only happens once You can't redo it you only get one time To have all these special happy memories

That are going to last a lifetime the Drive-in is creating those memories my Heart goes out to them I can't express In words how grateful I am you do Anything you can for Al because he'll do Anything for you so kindness gets you Everywhere in life that's something I've Learned from him Show everybody how much he truly cares And how truly thankful we are for Everything that you do for us when you Have people come to your house you want Them to have a good time and you wanted Them to be memorable and you wanted to Want to come back and the story is like My house so when they come here I want Them to be treated right [Applause] Thank you thank you Thank you [Music]