NHS Student Takes Over Her Grandmother’s Service Project

By Susan Coney

Newtown High School student Andie Maret worked in conjunction with her grandmother, Ruth Torony of Trumbull, to collect gently used stuffed animals, clean them, and donate them to various groups in Bridgeport that provide toys to children for the holidays.

Ruth Torony has been performing her holiday magic for several years now and with an increased number of stuffed animals being donated and the demand for them growing, she was in need of help. That is when her granddaughter Andie decided to become involved.

Andie said, “My grandmother has been doing this for a while, and I admire her for helping. When she told me that she might not do it this year I figured I would take over for her, but she ended up continuing and collected and cleaned more than I did. I wanted her to not give up because as hard as it may be the children and advisors really appreciate the generosity.”

Andie also thought it would be a wonderful way to accumulate the 100 hours of community service that students are supposed to perform upon graduating from Newtown High School. The sophomore collected stuffed toys by placing collection boxes at the high school and at her mother Sandra’s place of employment, Pitney Bowes in Danbury. Her collection boxes generated approximately 400 stuffed animals that Andie sorted, cleaned, and tied with a red Christmas ribbon. Added to what her grandmother collected, the pair had about 1,000 toys to recycle and donate to various organizations.

“I’m glad that I did it because I know that someone’s holiday was more cheerful because of me. I wanted to help the children that do not have everything in life that most children have.” She continued by saying that the experience brought her closer to her grandmother and she had the opportunity to learn from her and hear stories of how the toys have affected people in the past.

When asked if future plans include doing the toy collection next year, Andie was adamant that she would. “I will definitely do this again next year because I know how much this may affect children’s lives. This was my first year so I was really just getting used to it and figuring out how to be efficient. Next year I hope to collect more and advertise to help make more people aware of what I am doing if they would like to help,” she said.

The 15-year-year old summed it up by saying, “I definitely have a huge sense of accomplishment after completing so many hours of stuffed animal washing. I wish that I could have seen the children receive their stuffed animals, but I have received one thank you letter already.”