250 families benefit from generous Holiday Toy Store donations

Thursday, December 29, 2011

250 families benefit from generous toy donations

To the Editor:

Thank you, thank you, thank you from a very grateful Holiday Toy Store.

A huge thank you to all who made the Holiday Toy Store possible once again this year.

Thank you to all who sent in donations. Your incredible generosity during these difficult financial times made it possible for us to serve a record of more than 250 families and more than 600 children from Amherst, Brookline, Mont Vernon and Milford this year. I wish you could hear how much the people of the Souhegan Valley who needed help with Christmas this year, appreciated your generosity. For many of our patrons, this was the first year they had used the Holiday Toy Store and they were overwhelmed at the choices in toys due to your thoughtfulness and caring for others in need.

Thanks to SHARE for coordinating our clients and their wish lists this year.

Thanks to the Amherst Junior Woman’s Club who take the donations we receive and shop for the toys that give our patrons so many wonderful items to choose from. Special thanks to Lisa Emerson and Christina Zlotnick who coordinated the efforts of the Amherst Junior Woman’s Club and to Cyndy Otto who generously went above and beyond the call of duty in her help with the store.

Thanks also to Geni McLaurin who contacted all the businesses who agreed to have donation boxes at their locations. Thanks to the Amherst Police Department who distributed and picked up all the donation boxes in Amherst and the Milford Police Department who picked up all the donations from boxes set up in Milford. Thanks to all who donated items to these boxes. The response was overwhelming and very much appreciated by all the families that we served.

Thanks to Larry Ballard who coordinated the donations of gifts and monetary donations at the Amherst Middle School.

Thanks to Maggie Paul and the students at Souhegan High School who cut the wrapping paper that was distributed at the store and for wrapping the donation boxes. Also for dropping the donation boxes at all the locations.

Thanks to all the schools and businesses in Amherst, Milford, Brookline and Mont Vernon who agreed to have donation boxes.

Thank you to the VFW- Harley- Stanford Post for the beautifully decorated location for the Holiday Toy Store and for the helpful staff, especially Artie.

Thanks to Alice Corbett and the Milford Town Library who collects used books for the store.

And special thanks to Mary Ellen McNamara for all her help coordinating the schools with the Holiday Toy Store and especially to Geni McLaurin and Mary Ellen McNamara for all of the time, energy and support during the preparation for and the actually running of the Holiday Toy Store.

BETH KIMBERLY

Coordinator

Holiday Toy Store