An Open Letter

When he decided to run for the General Assembly, Frank wrote a letter to the residents of Warwick District 22 telling them about himself and explaining why he was running for public office.

September, 2007

Dear Neighbor,

 

For several years, I have been thinking about the importance of public service. I have admired the work of Peter Ginaitt, our State Representative from District 22, for many years due to his leadership on environmental issues, and we all were proud of the tremendous courage and leadership he provided to our State during the Station tire. When Peter announced that he was resigning, I knew that I had a decision to make. The values I learned from my family, the lessons I learned from more than 30 years in small business, and the connection I feel to our  neighborhood have come together to encourage me to take this step.

 

I am proud to announce that I am a Democratic candidate for State Representative in District 22 in the upcoming special election. The Democratic Primary is scheduled for Tuesday, October 23rd, and the General Election will be held on Tuesday, November 27th.

Hopefully, this letter will help you to get to know me - know my values, my history and qualifications, and my beliefs.

Some of you may already know me through my involvement in our neighborhood, through my bowling center, or because of my involvement with Marriage Equality Rhode Island. Not too long ago, an openly gay candidate may have hesitated to run for office for fear he wouldn't be accepted by his community. In fact, my experience has been quite the opposite. I have found that my neighbors, family, and friends are fair-minded people; they respect and admire my commitment to being honest about who I am and fighting for what I believe in, even when it is hard.

I grew up in Providence, where I attended public schools. Because of my interest in business, I attended Bryant University where I received a degree in Business Accounting.

I purchased my home on Lippitt Avenue 22 years ago. I love my neighborhood and my neighbors. I have been involved in the Riverview Neighborhood Association for nearly 10 years, and have been the Secretary for the last four. It has given me the opportunity to work on projects with my neighbors and to meet many of my elected officials. We also have great fun together. I enjoy hosting neighborhood parties and being in charge of the annual Fourth of July parade and reception.

I am also a small business owner. My interest in business comes from my family. My great grandfather supported his family with an ice cream pushcart on Federal Hill. His family then opened Modern Ice Cream where I worked while I was in high school, scooping ice cream and making banana splits.

My mother, Pam, and father, Frank, taught me the value of hard work. My parents met at the ice cream shop, and later my father worked at Imperial Knife in the Jewelry District. My mother also worked at Imperial Knife, and at Spiedel and Bulova, doing jewelry piece work. Ensuring that our government does everything it can to create new, good jobs — and support existing businesses - will be a priority of mine at the State House. I know what a difference a good job can make.

My parents worked hard every day. While we didn't have a lot, my brother and sister and I always had enough. My father worked during the day, and my mom worked at night. Sometimes, when they both had to work or my mother had errands to run, I was responsible for my brother Bob and sister Phyllis when we got home from school. My parents taught me that family is the priority, before anything else. Sometimes when I was a child, times were tough. Whenever a family friend or neighbor lost a job, or got sick, we always shared what we had—love and food. I learned that anyone can hit hard times, and that we have an obligation to take care of one another. That is a lesson I value every day, and I believe that our government and our elected officials have a role to play in helping others as well.

Our favorite family activity was to travel. Once, after visiting my grandparents in Florida, we took the train back, all the way from Miami to Providence. It is one of my fondest memories, and to this day, I love traveling by train. I also know it is one of the most environmentally friendly ways to travel. As your State Representative, I would have the opportunity to expand the train system into Warwick; I want to work at the State House to get it done.

My parents taught me so much - the value of a good days’ work, the need to help people who were less well off than we were, and the importance of valuing everyone, regardless of who they were or where they came from. For that, I am grateful.

After graduating from college, I got a job doing payroll for a Providence city program, and then worked for a software company. It was then that my brother made a pitch to me father and me: we should open a business together. My father loved bowling — it was his sport. We had the luck to find a friend who owned a bowling center who was looking to sell. In 1984 we bought the business, and I've owned Town Hail Lanes ever since. We built the business together, and though my father and brother retired in the 1990's, building it as a family has made it what it is today. Owning my business has taught me about perseverance, working together, and responding to changes in the business environment.

Running a small business is perfect for someone like me — who loves meeting new people and learning new things. I am so proud of our Youth Program - the largest such program in the entire duckpin bowling industry, and part of the reason I was recently inducted into the National Duckpin Bowling Congress Hall of Fame.

My other favorite program we run is our daytime Senior Leagues. One bowler, named Maty, is 102, and has been bowling with us for many years. Every July we celebrate her birthday with a cake, and she tells me that she looks forward to it all year long. All of my Senior League members love our center, and tell us how happy they are with the way we treat the business and them.

Working with my senior bowlers I have learned a lot about their concerns about fighting to keep their homes in an environment of ever-rising utility costs, spending astronomical amounts of money on prescription drugs, and where they will go if they get too sick to stay at home. I know that our seniors deserve to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect, and will be proud to represent their issues at the State House.

My business is successful because I treat my employees well. I have a profit-sharing plan, and pay as much as I can. I provided 100% health insurance until the cost became just too prohibitive, and now I pay 75% of the fees. In fact, health insurance — and the need to create a better overall health care system - is one key reason I want to run for State Representative.

As a small businessman, I know the ins and outs of the health insurance payment system. I know that it's broken. I also know that Rhode Island is small enough that we can get all the right people to work together to fix it. For example, we can work with non-profit insurance companies here in Rhode spend rather than give our money to out of state for-profit companies that pay their executives  millions of dollars a year - and I mean over |80 million a year of our hard-earned money.

I am running because I want to continue to live the values that I learned from my parents and owning my own business: to work hard, to persevere, give back, to work together, to take care of one  another. I believe that participating in government is another way to help my neighborhood, my city, and my state. I believe that government has a positive role to play in ensuring that our water is clean, our kids are educated and everyone receives the health care they need. We can use the tools of government to help create an economic environment where businesses like mine can grow and thrive.

I took all of these ideas and beliefs with me when I when up to State House to become politically active. I first got involved because my parents taught me that family always comes first, and everyone should be treated fairly. As a gay man, I wanted to make sure that Tony and I had the same legal protections as our friends and neighbors, so I joined the fight to protect same-sex couples. Tony and I married last year in Canada while celebrating our 25th anniversary.

Being at the State House made me realize that every day, our elected officials are making decisions about schools, health care, businesses, the environment; everything that is important to my family and all of the families in my neighborhood. Spending so much time at the State House, I have learned a great deal about the political process, what it takes to be a good legislator, and what it takes to make change.

I've spent hours listening to debates on health care, the environment, and how to fund education. I've seen how the issues are all interconnected, and it's made me realize how important it is to get involved and be a part of the solution to our pressing challenges. Sometimes I agree with the solutions I hear the elected officials at the State House propose, and sometimes I think that I have a better idea. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to go to the State House as a Representative, to be a conduit for your ideas - to hear what your ideas are about the pressing problems facing us, and how we can work together to solve them.

My instinct has always been to help out — as a young boy in the family business, at home with my younger brother and sister, as a business-owner myself, and with my neighborhood association.

Now I would like to take my values, my skills, ray commitment, and nay perseverance to the State House to serve all of us. I have learned that the best legislators — like Peter Ginaitt — stay in close touch with their constituents. I know that together, with all of us focusing on the problems and the solutions, we can succeed.

In that spirit, I'd like to ask you to call me, and let one know what you'd like to get done on Smith HIM. Because this is such a short campaign, it will not be possible for me to meet even' voter before the Special Election Democratic Primary on October 23rd or the General Election on
November 27th. That's why I'd like to hear from you. You can reach me at my home number, 737-5113 or via email at VoteFrankFerri@gmail.com, and learn more about my campaign on our website at www.VoteFrankFerri.com.

I'm also asking you, respectfully, for your vote in the Special Election Democratic Primary on October 23rd and the General Election on November 27th. I will be happy to help you get to the polls with a ride, or to help you get an absentee ballot should you need one. I also have information about where you vote, because the polling places for the Special Election may not be the same as the place where you usually vote.

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me, learning about who I am and where I came from. I look forward to talking with you, and to working together to make Rhode Island the best it can possibly be.

Sincerely,

Frank Ferri