TikTok Game Show Leads To Concord Soup Kitchen Donation: Watch

CONCORD, NH — Anyone who knows Paulette Boghosian realizes she has been involved in a lot of activities in Concord and has a bit of an entrepreneurial streak, too.

A former educator, known to most as Miss Polly, Boghosian owns Traveling Treats, an ice cream truck business often seen around the city at community events. About 18 months ago, she opened Who Doesn’t Want That?, a store on South Main Street that offered a number of products including cool Concord-themed items like Concord Theatre T-shirts as well as pins, candles, mugs, cards, clothing, and more.

However, the coronavirus pandemic caused the closure of the store right after Boghosian made a large investment in more products. Community members, including Concord High School's robotics team, however, rallied to assist her and raised $3,200 via GoFundMe.com. The money, she said, helped her offset the cost of closing.

During the past few months, Boghosian has been hosting a game show on TikTok and has built up nearly 300,000 followers (find her at @itsmepollyb, if you use the app).

During the game, she sets up a contest allowing people the chance to win an item. According to Boghosian, 100 coins on TikTok is about $1. Then, she sells 20 to 30 slots. A winner is chosen by asking Siri to randomly choose a number and that person wins. At the end of the game, Boghosian checks to see how much money was raised. She has been using leftover products from the shop as prizes, too.

In the first three broadcasts, she raised about $250. Later, it grew to $1,000, astonishing Boghosian.

On Wednesday, she delivered the funds to The Friendly Kitchen and shared the story of how the contest became another way of giving back to others after people in the community helped her when she needed it.

"It makes me so happy to be able to give that to you," Boghosian told Valerie Guy, the executive director of The Friendly Kitchen, after handing over the donation.

Guy thanked her and said the money would go a long way.

"We, at the Friendly Kitchen, appreciate this," she said. "Every penny goes back to the people that we feed… this is amazing. We are so grateful."

The Friendly Kitchen, right now, is only serving meals to-go. The organization is also doing outreach, in the community, to make sure people who cannot get to the kitchen have meals, too. Not including utensils and packaging, each meal costs about $3. So, the donation will pay for hundreds of meals, Guy said.

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