Santa and Mrs. Claus touched down inLindenwood on Sunday afternoon, bringing smiles and Christmas presents to morethan 100 children from Howard Beach,Broad Channel and Rockaway, all affectedby Hurricane Sandy.
Hugs, warm wishes and offers to keep helping went along with gift cards and toysfor the kids.
The idea for the Christmas giveaway wasborn in Tuscany Deli where Marly Gurino says she and her husband John,who owns the store, got a chance to really see howdevastated people were in the aftermath ofthe hurricane.
“People were coming to the store at 5a.m. and starting to line up even before we were open,” recalls John Gurino, “I would listen to them talk on line about how bad every thing was. I knew we had to do something.”
It was then he says that his wife Marlytook the bull by the horns and got the ballrolling. “It started with an Adopt-a-Family program that we did to feed families for Thanksgiving,” explained Marly Gurino,”and when that worked so well we knew wehad to do something for Christmas.”
Using her social networking skills, Marly continued spreading the word on Facebookand at the store. Soon she says, the moneystarted rolling in. And so did calls frombusinesses and organi zat ions in thecommunity.
Joann Ariola, founder of the Lindenwood Allia nce, said her group was all toopleased to jump in and help with the project.
“Lindenwood is a small, tight-knit com-munity and when Marly put out a call forhelp, we were glad to be of assistance.”
In addition to making a cash donation, the Alliance sent a crew of volunteers to setup and disperse the gifts.
Deborah O’Connor and Nancy Young, sisters from Broad Channel, came to the event with their 5 daughters. Both of theirhomes were completely destroyed in thestorm. “This is really so uplifting,’ said Young. “I truly hope Marly and everyoneout here helping knows how much thismeans to us. It goes so far beyond cominghere to pick up gifts. This is people caringabout people––it’s an incredible feeling.”
Overall the campaign to bring Christmasto those in need raised almost $5,700 aswell as donations of toys and other ageappropriate gifts for children. Gift cards inthe amounts of $100 , $50 and $25 to Tar-get, Waldbaums, Toy “R”Us and HomeDepot were given to nearly 80 families aswell as 150 wrapped gifts for kids includingfootballs, basketballs, Barbie’s, Lego setsand many other popular toy choices.
The afternoon brought equal numbers of smiles and thank yous as families lined upfor free pictures with Santa and Christmasballoon creations by Nick the Baloonatic.
At the end of a long day of hard work atired Marly Gurino stood thanking the volunteers, including the warm and wonderfulMr & Mrs O’Dea who took time away fromtheir own personal losses to stand in forMr. & Mrs. Claus.
A passerby on the street inquired aboutthe toy train that had been packed withgifts just hours before. ” What’s going onhere?” asked Denise Friedman, an area resi-dent. One of the volunteers responded,”We were here all day giving out Christmasgifts for families hurt by the storm.” DeniseFriedman nodded her head and took a min-ute before answering. “You know,” she saidsoftly, “you may think I’m crazy, but maybethis storm was good for the soul.”
By Patricia Adams
