64 Families Aided By The Newtown Fund’s Holiday Baskets

By Andrew Gorosko

Several dozen volunteers demonstrated the spirit of Christmas on Saturday, December 17, at The Newtown Fund’s annual Depot Day event, which is the culmination of the charitable group’s Holiday Basket program.

At Sandy Hook School, fund members and many other volunteers collected, organized, wrapped and then oversaw the distribution of hundreds of donated holiday gifts, nonperishable food items, and household goods to 64 local needy families, which comprise 99 children and 97 adults.

The town’s Social Services Department provides the names of people in need for whom gifts are purchased and then distributed through the program.

In the Holiday Basket program, local groups and families “adopt” families for whom they provide the gifts. Those donors deliver the items to the school early on Depot Day, after which volunteers prepared the gifts for delivery.

Later in the morning, more volunteers arrived in SUVs, minivans, pickup trucks, and autos that were then loaded with the gifts for delivery.

The Newtown Fund formed about 60 years ago. It has operated the Holiday Basket program for more than 20 years.

People who do not contribute gifts, food, or household items, may donate money to the organization, which is used for its various charitable programs year-round.

People interested in helping the volunteer, nonprofit Newtown Fund in its charitable work may contact the organization at The Newtown Fund, PO Box 641, Newtown CT 06470. Contributions are tax-deductible.