This year, Jersey Mike’s Subs of Erie showed their generosity by holding a Month of Giving for Shriners Children’s Erie.

Every March, Jersey Mike’s does a Month of Giving where customers can donate money, and on the last Wednesday of the month, they do a Day of Giving where 100% of sales from both Erie Jersey Mike’s locations will go to Shriners.

Local Jersey Mike’s owner George Farantzos has a special connection to Shriners Children’s Erie.

“Both of our kids when they were younger years ago were both checked out by Shriners. My son had been born with spina bifida, but has since luckily grown out of it and was checked out by the hospital. At the time when my daughter was younger, she was checked out there for potential scoliosis, which has since cleared up,” said George Farantzos, Jersey Mike’s Subs owner.

He said this is a way, years later, for him to be able to give back and be able to provide those opportunities for other families.

“I think it’s important to give back, it’s important to give to give, not give to get. We have a lot of people that are going to work hard that day, especially the Day of Giving, it’s going to be a busy day,” Farantzos added.

He hopes to bring in a nice profit that day.

“The first time that we did this was a couple of years ago. I think we did $11,000 or $12,000 that day. So with two stores, I’m not sure if we will not quite hit that first store, but I think we will be in pretty good shape and be able to help out Shriners,” Farantzos said.

Shriners Children’s Erie development officer, David Schumacher, said the partnership with George and his two locations in Erie has been wonderful.

“Jersey Mike’s gets it in that they want to help kids and they want to give back to the community. So this partnership allows us to do both where Jersey Mike’s has a Month of Giving, they chose Shriners Children’s Erie to partner with, and together we’re able to raise a lot of money to help the kids,” said David Schumacher, Shriners Children’s Erie development officer.