It started small, just sourcing snacks for a church coffee hour. But, if Patricia Asimacos has her way, what follows will be a movement with the potential to change the world.
Let’s go back to the beginning.
Asimacos, a teacher in Peabody, was raised in a Greek American household in Belmont. She was a devout member of the Taxiarchae Church in Watertown.
“Last year, I became a parish council member, and this year they voted me as vice president of the parish council,” she said. “That was really special. It means a lot to me.”
A little over a year ago, parish council members got an email stating food was needed for a coffee hour, as there were no donations for that particular Sunday. Asimacos called around, first to a friend at Sophia’s Greek Pantry in Belmont, which donated 10 loaves of “tsourekia,” or sweet bread. Then she called the owner of My Other Kitchen, a Greek restaurant in Belmont.
“I had never met him personally, but I told him I was on the council, and he donated platters of spanakopita, the Greek spinach, and feta pies,” she recalled.
Something clicked.
“It was so amazing that all it took was asking kindly and explaining the situation, and they just stepped up, wanting nothing in return,” Asimacos said.
That night, Asimacos said, the wheels started turning.
“I was so impressed by the goodness of people,” she said. “I thought, what if we could do this at a bigger level?”
By morning, the name Hellenic Boston Businesses Unite had a URL and a mission statement focusing on the concept of “philotimo.”
“When you say that you go by the code of philotimo, it means you are an honorable person who wants to help your friend,” Asimacos explained. “Your friend is anyone because we are all friends under God’s eyes, all brothers and sisters.”
According to Zip Atlas, Greek Americans make up less than 3% of Belmont’s population, not even cracking the state’s top 10 communities with the highest percentage of Greek residents. The highest is Nahant, at slightly less than 6%. But Asimacos knew that by tapping into the strong spirit of philanthropy and honor in the Greek community, great things could be accomplished.
“I started by wanting to bring the Greek business owners together, but once people started hearing about it, it wasn’t just business owners,” she said. “It was lawyers who are Greek, it was doctors who are Greek. I morphed the mission statement to include any Greek professional so we could come together, be a community, and help one another.”
In a little more than a year, Hellenic Boston Businesses Unite, or HBBU, has held multiple events for networking, socializing, and fundraising. The primary goals are to raise money for Metropolis of Boston Camp, a Greek Orthodox summer camp in Boston, and the Sotir Center in Thessaloniki, Greece, a nonprofit organization providing special education services for children.
“The ultimate goal is to raise funds for children because they are the future,” she said.
While the organization’s initial focus was to bring together Belmont’s Greek American business leaders, Asimacos said it is now really focused on community building.
“As idealistic as it sounds, my idea is for us all to be not just a community but a family, looking out for one another,” she said. “Whether you are talking about Belmont or the church community, if we don’t enrich the kids, we have nothing without them.”
At present, the organization is not open to new members. Instead, Asimacos and the team she assembled are focused on event planning. The initial launch event drew about 70 people, even with limited publicity. Subsequent events also drew larger-than-expected attendance, she said.
“Recently we had a business networking event; we were expecting 40 people and got 65,” she said.
To date, there has been a fundraising gala and other smaller events, and a radiothon last month, that ensured 10 children are able to attend the Metropolis Boston Camp this summer. A golf tournament is planned next year.
Before opening the organization to membership, Asimacos wants to “give people an idea of what we’re about.”
Dena Skeadas, founder of Dena Public Relations in Boston, has been providing public relations services for HBBU.
“It is a beautiful cause,” she said. “I went to Greek camp myself, and it was so instrumental in my young adult life. I made lifelong friends, so I know how important it can be to our youth.”
Skeadas said the Greek community is close-knit and proud of its culture and shared faith.
“If we can provide a service to each other, we do it. It is ingrained in each and every one of us,” she said.
Asimacos said she feels she has tapped into a need for people to be a part of a community.
“I feel humanity really lacks love and empathy sometimes,” she said. “There is so much hatred in the world, I feel we need to remember that love is what can bind us together, no matter what.”
To that end, Asimacos plans to expand HBBU well beyond Belmont to other cities in the U.S. and Greece and eventually spread the spirit of philotimo worldwide.
“I want this to grow exponentially,” she said. “Good can happen on a viral level, as well as bad.”
For more information about HBBU, visit their website, hbbu.org.