In A Troubled World, Newtown Fund Hopes Charity Will Start At Home

 By Kaaren Valenta

Although attention is focused on the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster and on an uncertain economy, volunteers from the Newtown Fund hope that residents will again respond this holiday season to also help local families in need.

Dozens of households in Newtown could face a bleak holiday season if it were not for the efforts of the Newtown Fund and other local organizations that lend a hand. But these volunteers need the help of many people in the community to make it happen.

Already the town’s social services department has identified more than 90 households who need help, and the list is expected to reach about 120.

The Newtown Fund is looking for looking for individuals, families, businesses, and others to “adopt” these families and provide food and gifts that will be delivered on Delivery Day – formerly known as Depot Day – which this year is scheduled for Saturday, December 15. On that day, donations for the holiday baskets will be collected at Sandy Hook Elementary School at 9 am, packaged and delivered by volunteers at 1 pm to households throughout Newtown.

“Even if people aren’t able to sponsor a family, they can help by making monetary donations or by providing a gift certificate for food or gasoline,” said Linda Bates of Stockwell Bates & Co., Newtown Fund vice president, who is chairman of the holiday basket project this year.

In conjunction with Delivery Day, the Newtown Junior Woman’s Club is holding its annual Tag-a-Gift program, which provides toys for children up to age 12.

Nearly 40 years ago, the late Joseph Chase and Rev Paul Cullens were instrumental in delivering the first holiday baskets and creating the Newtown Fund, a nonprofit organization that addresses special needs in the community. At year-end, this includes “adopting” families that have been in contact with the town’s social services department and making sure they have a holiday meal, gifts of clothing, toys, and other household staples such as warm blankets and sheets.

“We use the guidelines for the energy assistance program to determine who is on the [Newtown Fund] list,” said Glynis Lanzetta, the town’s social services director. “But generally if they qualify for any type of assistance, they qualify for this.”

December 5 is the cutoff for applications for the holiday basket program; anyone who thinks they may qualify should contact the social services department at 270-4330.

For people who want to help, providing a happy holiday for a child can be as easy as picking an ornament off a Christmas tree and purchasing an extra toy. It can involve “adopting” a family in need and providing both a meal and gifts, or making donations of food, new clothing, blankets, new toys and the like for “unadopted” families. All items donated to the holiday basket program should be new and unused.

Helping also can mean donating an hour or two to help deliver the baskets. Or it can be simply making a tax-deductible donation by sending a check payable to The Newtown Fund to PO Box 641, Newtown, Conn. 06470-0641. (Write “Holiday Basket Program” in the memo line.)

“This is entirely a volunteer effort,” said Cathy Sullivan, who coordinated the program last year despite being almost incapacitated by a broken leg. “It’s the very best day of the year for me.”

 Monetary donations to the holiday gift basket program also are used to buy gift certificates that might help a recipient purchase prescription medicine or get a haircut.

Most people who help want to adopt families with children, but there are other households as well. The list may include some senior citizens and single people without children who have debilitating diseases.

Each year the Newtown Junior Woman’s Club helps with Depot Day through its Tag-a-Gift Program.

To help residents buy appropriate gifts for children, the club plans to place holiday trees decorated with special ornaments at the Union Savings Bank on Church Hill Road, at Fleet Bank on Queen Street, at the Newtown Savings Bank in the Sand Hill Plaza, and at the Wesley Learning Center next week. Each of the red, white, and blue tin-punched star ornaments has a tag attached that indicates whether the gift should be for a boy or girl, the age of the child, and whether the child has any special gift wish. There is also a sign-up sheet nearby each Tag-a-Gift tree that should be filled out before an ornament and tag are taken home.

The gifts should be brought, unwrapped, back to the banks before noon on December 10 with the tag attached. Members of the Junior Woman’s Club will wrap all of the gifts.

The local bus drivers also take up a collection of food for the holiday gift baskets. All food should be nonperishable, and fresh. Sell-by dates must not have expired.

If anyone would like to adopt a family should call Erica Kotowski at 426-4916 between the hours of 8 am and 9 pm. Anyone who would like to help on delivery day or in any other way should call Stockwell Bates at 270-9312.