Depot Day: Giving In The True Spirit Of Christmas

By Kaaren Valenta

“This is my favorite day of the year,” Cathy Sullivan reflected aloud as she watched volunteers lug armloads of gifts to waiting vehicles during the Newtown Fund’s Depot Day last Saturday morning at Sandy Hook School.

Through the efforts of hundreds of volunteers, gifts were purchased, wrapped, and delivered to those who otherwise might have had a bleak Christmas. “We had 89 families and individuals on the list this year, down just a little from previous years,” Mrs Sullivan said.

The list included 80 children and 95 adults, 28 of whom were senior citizens.

The night before Depot Day, Art Bennett and a crew of volunteers from the school district’s mini-bus drivers sorted and delivered food that had been donated by families on their routes. Ten other volunteers assembled 150 cardboard boxes that were donated by Pitney Bowes to serve as delivery baskets for the Depot Day gifts.

At 7:30 am Saturday, the volunteers began arriving to collect the food and gifts as they were dropped off at the school between 8 and 9 am. A dozen members of Boy Scout Troop 370, plus students from the middle school and the high school, showed up to do the work of hauling the donations into the school, and later loading them into the vehicles of the volunteer drivers.

Girl Scouts from Troops 143 and 838 joined members of the Newtown Junior Woman’s Club, wrapping Tag-a-Gift toys for the gift baskets.

For many involved in Depot Day, the activity is a family tradition. Cathy and Don Sullivan got involved in 1985 when they bought gifts for a mother and her handicapped son.

“[Don] went to deliver the gifts to the Depot Day collection site and he never came home,” Mrs Sullivan said. “He stayed to help out. We’ve been involved ever since.”

The Sullivans were eating breakfast at My Place restaurant a few days before Depot Day and noticed the tables were decorated with small poinsettias that were being sold by students involved in the high school’s greenhouse program.

“We made a nice deal and were able to buy 28 poinsettias for the 28 senior citizens on our list,” Mrs Sullivan said. “It was a nice way to support the high school program and to do something for the seniors. They don’t always have a Christmas tree. “

Cathy Sullivan is the president of the Newtown Fund, a nonprofit organization operated totally by volunteers and funded through donations. The fund was started in 1959 by the late realtor Joseph Chase. Through the ensuing decades, the Newtown Fund has assisted local families in catastrophic situations, offered seed money for the creation of Nunnawauk Meadows and the Family Life Center, and rekindled holiday joy in the less fortunate by offering gifts through its annual Depot Day.