Groton Holiday Distribution Program Serves Nearly 500 Families

For Caroline Blais, pulling together a Christmas with presents under the tree and a big holiday meal was going to be tough. Blais stays home with her young children rather than work because the cost of child care far exceeds, she said, a paycheck. Her husband earns enough to support the young family, but just that. Without a bonus, they have little to spend to make a Christmas morning for their girls.

“Oh my gosh, this helps so much,” said Blais, mother of two girls, ages 2 and 6. “We do what we can, which is not a lot and not enough.”

But within the large red Christmas bundle, Blais found a Cabbage Patch doll, blocks, a stuffed toy, a puzzle and more.

“This is awesome,” she said. She also received a box filled with holiday dinner fixings and a voucher for a turkey or ham.

The holiday distribution of food -- and Christmas presents for qualifying children under 12 – saw nearly 500 pre-registered, in-need families Friday line up for boxes with Christmas dinner fixings. Of those families, 380 received bags with presents for children, according to Marge Fondulas, Groton Human Services director.

“We had 483 families sign up for holiday food baskets in total. We can’t accommodate any more than 500; we just don’t have the room in the basement or the resources,” she said.

So, in other words, they just made it.  Friday morning, scores of volunteers packed boxes, toted bags, loaded cars, trucks and helped folks with their bundles.

The volunteers including Hank Steinford, who helped load a bicycle into the trunk of a car, destined for a deserving child Christmas morning. Steinford’s wife Joan, also a volunteer, said that last year a mother was moved to tears when she was given a bicycle for her child.

“She just broke down,” Joan said. “She said that’s all her 12-year-old had asked for.”

The bicycles, 29 of them, were donated by Monsanto.

Moving quickly down the driveway of the Human Services building after getting his food box, voucher and small box with a present or two, an elderly man with tattered sneakers and too-lightweight jacket stopped to say he was grateful for the help.

“But I’m embarrassed I gotta come with a wagon; I got no car,” said the man, who asked that Patch not identify him. He said the box of food and Christmas gifts “sure will help.” He described the volunteers at Human Service and the Holiday program as “real important for me.”

In order for a family to qualify, they must provide proof of income and residency.