Newtown Lions Club members did a little bit of traveling during a snowstorm recently, returning to town with donations from a major e-commerce company.

Lions Arnie Berman, Kevin Corey, Jordan D’Amico, Steve Stolfi, and Bruce Walczak met at the Clancy Relocation & Logistics building on South Main Street early Saturday afternoon, February 17, following a trip to Meriden, where one vehicle was filled with boxes of items being donated by Amazon.com. Clancy employee Dylan Brideau was ready for the group’s arrival, with a loading dock open and ready for the boxes to be moved through. Amazon had organized a pallet of boxes for Newtown. Each box had vague labels including Food, Personal Care, Toys, and Food.

The next step for the Lions is to open and sort through all of the boxes; this began last Tuesday. Walczak said the load had toys, “lots of office supplies, six packs of soda, electronics, baby formula and food. Kinda like a pot luck supper.”

Once they have inventoried what they have, the Lions will divvy the donations and share them among FAITH Food Pantry, Newtown Congregational Church’s Hospitality Hall, Bridgeport Rescue Mission, and The Dorothy Day Hospitality Hall in Danbury.

This is the fourth time in recent months the trip was made by the local club, one of 16 to benefit from the offer that weekend.

Berman said Amazon is “very particular about items that are shipped.

“Any ding, any little issue, the product is usually still good so rather than waste them they’ve begun sharing through Lions Clubs,” he explained.

Berman had planned to host the collection at his home that weekend, but when snow and winds were predicted ahead of the delivery, plans were changed. Lions Club members have taken turns hosting the donations ahead of sorting. With a passing snowstorm on February 17, Berman’s garage was not going to be conducive for storing or working for too long, however.

Walczak said he reached out to Clancy Relocation because he knew of the company’s participation with an organization called Move For Hunger. The nonprofit works with the relocation industry to support the efforts of local food banks.

“When we heard how cold the weather was going to be this weekend, I reached out to Clancy and requested a spot within their building,” Walczak said. “They very generously gave us this space.”

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.