Spreading The Christmas Spirit Throughout The Year

By Jan Howard

David Quinn would like the spirit of giving that exists during the holiday season to last all year round.

That’s why he is inaugurating a grass-roots charitable organization, Twelve Months of Christmas, on Saturday, October 23, in conjunction with USA Weekend’s ninth annual Make a Difference Day, an event that brings out millions of people nationally to volunteer in projects that benefit their communities and help neighbors in need.

“This is a registered project for Make A Difference Day,” Mr Quinn said this week. “I am using Make a Difference Day as a catapult for The Twelve Months of Christmas. It’s a platform.”

He noted that instead of a one-day event, “The Twelve Months of Christmas will take the charitable movement of this time of year and try to carry it out throughout the year. I think we can.

“If we can tap energy for charitable projects in November and December, why can’t we do that all year?” he asked. “I want to hit the ground running. This is a good time of year to begin.”

Mr Quinn, who volunteers in his church and for Literacy, said he has been thinking about how he could help the community for some time. He said he was concerned about what happened to families after the holiday season is over. Their problems don’t go away, he said.

“We are looking for families needing help,” he said.

The inaugural project of Twelve Months of Christmas is designated to help families with infant supplies. Mr Quinn will be looking for donations of toys, clothes, diapers, wipes, baby food and formula, baby powder, books, Children’s Tylenol, oral gel, rash ointment, strollers and car seats.

Mr Quinn also would encourage organizations to help the community supply families with basic care commodities as well as day care, medical, and insurance needs.

“I’ve seen what young families need,” he said. As the father of two small children, he said he also has experienced first hand what it costs to raise a family.

“Raising a child shouldn’t be a hardship,” he said. “That’s not what God intended when we had children.”

He said he plans to contact local churches and other groups to enlist their support for his 12-month project. “I want to get the Visiting Nurses Association involved. The public library is a great source, as well as day care providers and HUSKY medical services,” he said. He also wants to get area businesses involved in finding employment for part-time workers.

 Mr Quinn said he has met with the local Department of Social Services to make sure there will be no duplication of efforts.

“I’m looking for as much help as I can get,” he said.

He said he would be willing to join his efforts with those of other organizations to carry the giving spirit past the holiday season. “We are not competitive with others. I’d rather help them than compete. I just want to put a name on an effort that lasts year round.

“People need a place to go to get everyone talking to each other about needs in the community,” he said.

He said volunteers to Twelve Months of Christmas would also learn skills that would benefit them in the future, noting that he gained valuable experience recently helping a friend with renovations to his home.

“I’m a person who cares. I want to be a catalyst for others to get involved,” he said. “We all should be ashamed that no one else is doing this [Make a Difference Day]. We need something like this.”

He said advertisements have been running in local newspapers about the Make A Difference Day. “I’m surprised no one has done anything about this.”

Mr Quinn said donations of baby items can be brought to his home at 8 Paugussett Road in Sandy Hook unless another organization would like to donate a more centralized collection place.

Mr Quinn said he has not as yet established a 501C tax status, but will soon because he never wants Twelve Months of Christmas to be a profit organization.

“I don’t want to take on all the needs at once,” Mr Quinn said, adding that he likes that he is starting small and can build from that to help members of the community.

A resident of Newtown for nine years, Mr Quinn said he loves this area. He and his wife, Shayla, previously lived in lower Fairfield County. They have two children, Garrett, 7, and Austin, 5. Mr Quinn has a master’s degree in business management and a minor in psychology.

 Mr Quinn said Twelve Days of Christmas would sponsor a different project each month throughout the year. He said he is open to suggestions for events or projects.

 A preliminary schedule of events for the coming year includes: November – Thanksgiving dinners, seasonal work program; December – Christmas dinners, presents for children; January – coats and blankets, job referrals and soup collection; February – business attire donations for people entering the business world for the first time, health care fair (VNA, HUSKY Medical Services, WIC program); March – spring clean up; April – garden plantings (flowers, vegetables); May – book collection; June – weekend get-a-ways (adult/children/family); day care provider’s workshop; July – summer camp; August – beach weekends; September - children clothing collection for school; and October – Make A Difference Day, one-year anniversary.

Ongoing projects might include a hearty meal wagon, neighbors in need program, music lessons, gymnastics lessons, and reading, English language and computer tutorials.

For information about the Twelve Months of Christmas effort, call Mr Quinn at 270-9538 or e-mail him at dquinn01@snet.net.

The ninth annual Make A Difference Day is the largest community service effort in the nation, rallying corporations, government leaders, charitable organizations and citizens into action on one day.

Mr Quinn hopes to take this one-day event and expand it in this area to include charitable projects all year long. He said the effort does not have to be confined to Newtown, and encourages businesses and residents of the area “to get together and get involved.”

On the last Make A Difference Day, a record two million volunteers participated nationally and an estimated 14 million people in need benefited; $2.5 million was distributed to the charities of volunteers. Projects ranged from a countrywide cleanup involving thousands of people to a mentoring program in which members of a sorority provided one-on-one support to 35 underprivileged children.

Participating companies, such as Newman’s Own Inc and Wal-Mart, along with leading community-minded citizens, are expected to again help make this year’s event a record-breaking success throughout the United States.

USA Weekend magazine in partnership with The Points of Light Foundation urges those interested in making a difference to get involved on Make A Difference Day.

For more information about the event and the local effort for baby supplies, call Mr Quinn at Twelve Months of Christmas at 270-9538 or The Make A Difference Day hot line at 800/416-3824. Additional information and a national databank of local project plans are available at the Web site www.makeadifferenceday.com.