Seventy-Two Local Families Receive ‘Holiday Baskets’

By Andrew Gorosko

Seventy-two local families will be having a brighter Christmas this year than would have been otherwise possible now that The Newtown Fund’s annual Holiday Basket program has delivered to them bundles of Christmas gifts, which they could not provide for themselves.

Several dozen volunteers gathered on a frigid Saturday, December 19, at Sandy Hook School in the Depot Day component of The Newtown Fund’s gift-giving program. The volunteers organized the donated gifts for delivery to the needy.

Newtown Fund President Doreen Kostecki explained that the town’s social services department reviews which local families and individuals are eligible to receive gifts through the charitable program. The recipients provide lists of what they need, such as food, household goods, apparel, toys, and gift certificates.

Donating families “adopt” receiving families. The donating families fill gift requests, purchasing the items for the needy.

“People were very generous,” Ms Kostecki said of those who purchased gifts this year. “Things went very well,” she said of the organization’s annual mobilization to get the gifts delivered to recipients before Christmas.

After all of the gifts were collected at the school, local Boy Scouts aided by adults filled the various pending delivery orders, matching up the many bundles of gifts with the volunteer drivers who would be delivering them.

An inviting buffet meal fueled those volunteers’ efforts on the wintry day.

The Newtown Fund was formed more than a half-century ago. It has operated the Holiday Basket program for about the past 20 years. It is estimated that about 200 people benefit from the organization’s Holiday Basket program.

People who do not contribute gifts, food, or household items, may donate money to the organization, which is used in its charitable programs. The organization conducts other projects to help local needy people during the year. Such programs help the needy cover heating fuel costs and medical bills, among other expenses.

Ms Kostecki said The Newtown Fund welcomes new people joining the organization for help in operating its various charitable projects.

Ms Kostecki asked that people who are interested in helping the Newtown Fund contact the organization at The Newtown Fund, PO Box 641, Newtown CT 06470.