LI Nonprofit Restaurant Makes First Donation To 2 Charities

LINDENHURST, NY - Local couple Billy and Nicole Miller opened their restaurant Restoration Kitchen and Cocktails with the goal to give back to Long Island charities.

Just four months later, they already exceeded their goals beyond their wildest dreams.

Since opening, the Lindenhurst natives collected all proceeds from the restaurant to donate to two different charities.

Customers who dined at the restaurant were all given a token and got the chance to vote which charity they wanted to donate to.

Recently, the Millers were able to make their first donations totaling over $27,000 to two local charities.

The Christina Renna Foundation received 52 percent of the donations totaling $14,272.96 and the Suffolk County United Veterans received 48 percent of the donations totaling $13,175.04.

"We brought a lot of great awareness to there organizations, which they appreciated but on top of that they seemed very shocked and very appreciative about the amount," Billy said.

The Christina Renna foundation, which was started by a local family after their daughter died from a rare cancer, helps to fund research to find cures for rare cancers.

The Suffolk County United Veterans help build homes for veterans and their families and are also building houses to provide mental health services to veterans as well.

The Millers never expected to be able to make such a generous donations to these organizations.

"My goals were always set high of course, but did I expect that much in the first four months? No, not at all," Billy told Patch. "I can't wait to be able to do more for our next organizations."

In fact, the restaurant has already started collecting for the next two organizations beginning Jan. 1.

For the next four months, Restoration will be accepting donations to The Beat Lives On, a local non-profit that helps finance sober homes, and the Babylon Breast Cancer Coalition. Both organizations are based in Lindenhurst.

"Thank you [to the customers], it's because of them that we get to do this," Billy said.

Pictured at the presentation are (l-r) Tom McOlvin, Board Vice President of the Association for Mental Health and Wellness; Ruth McDade, SCUV Director of Development; Nicole and Billy Miller; Wilkens Young, Director of SCUV.

Photos courtesy of Billy Miller