Parents Grateful For Help at Holidays

Social Services Assistant Director Doris Fonner grew up in New London as one of 19 children in her family. So she knows how parents can sometimes struggle to make the holidays bright for their children.

Fonner was at the former Gales Ferry School Monday to distribute toys to parents who signed up for some help this year. With her was Ledyard Children’s Librarian Nancy Brewer, who organizes the Library’s Giving Tree, a program that provides books for children during the holidays.

In the old school gym there were hundreds of toys, games, crafts kits, books and sporting goods donated this year by residents through toy drives run by the National Honor Society, the and

One mom who came to the school saw a unicorn pillow pet among the toys and stuffed animals. “She was in tears when we got out to the car,” Fonner said. “Her daughter wanted a pillow pet in the worst way, she said, and she just couldn’t afford it.”

“And that’s what is so wonderful and exciting about doing this,” said Brewer, who has been organizing the Giving Tree for seven or eight years. “It’s about those parents who really want to do something special for their children.”

Brewer, whose father was a Baptist minister in Minnesota, also knows something about families of modest means trying to create a Merry Christmas for their kids.

On Wednesday, the town’s generosity will continue with a holiday food basket distribution at the Social Services office that is expected to serve more than 100 families throughout the community this year.