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December 27, 2020Christmas during the Covid-19 pandemic has been anything but ordinary. Extraordinary times
call for creative thinking and planning. That is the story of this year’s Delbarton Christmas Toy Distribution for the children at Catholic Charities’ early childhood and youth programs.
In the past, under the planning and direction of Dr. Jonathan Cote of Delbarton and the Delbarton Mother’ Team (Diane Brady, Kathy Hager, Elizabeth Dooley and Julie 0’Brien) usually dozens of Delbarton elves (students, faculty and families) descend on the Fr. English Center in Paterson and line table after table with hundreds of toys and refreshments for the children to select from. It is a joyous day for all as children go from table to table selecting toys.
This was not possible this year. Instead, The Delbarton team and Sister Maureen Sullivan, Dir. of Pastoral Services and Volunteers at Catholic Family and Community Services (CFCS), and the Coordinator for the Catholic Charities aspect of the toy drive, worked out a new plan to safely provide toys for the children while practicing needed Covid protocols. The schools and youth programs provided individual lists by family of children in the programs and their siblings. Delbarton took the list of the children and siblings by age and gender for the Delbarton families to match toys to the children.
After collecting and sorting hundreds of toys, the family lists were completed. The Delbarton, students, faculty and parents packed the toys into individual, bright red Santa sacks, tied up in white ribbon with the name of each child, family and program on the tag.
Compiling over 500 bags was no easy task for Delbarton and it was compounded by the heavy snow fall on the day that the truck needed to be loaded. But weather did not deter them.
The truck was neatly and fully packed and on to the Father English Center where CFCS maintenance, staff and volunteers unloaded the bags and delivered them to the different programs. Faculty at the various program sites contacted families and arranged for pick up while practicing Covid protocols.
The smiles on the faces of the children and the families were as bright as ever. Generosity, care for others, careful planning and hard work had overcome Covid-19 and brought the joy, happiness and blessings of the Christmas season to needy families in Paterson. This far-reaching effort helped hundreds of families and children just in time for Christmas.
Delbarton came through again!
