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Norfolk/Wrentham - Local Town Pages

Community Organizations Make the Holidays Brighter for Shelter Children

 

Two new community organizations came together over the holidays to collect Christmas presents for the children at the Baystate Temporary Respite Shelter. 
Norfolk Strong has been partnering with local organizations to lend more than 384 member volunteers as “hands and feet” in the community. Six days before Christmas, the group joined forces with the Norfolk and Medfield chapter of St. Vincent de Paul Society to provide presents for the children at the Baystate Shelter. The newly formed St. Vincent de Paul chapter is organized out of the parishes of St. Jude in Norfolk and St. Edward in Medfield.
Days before Christmas, the organizations put out a joint call for new toys and donations, asking volunteers to purchase highly requested items like soccer balls, baby dolls, and toy trucks. The answer from the community was so tremendous that each of the children in the shelter, 65% of whom are under the age of five, could open four to five gifts each on Christmas morning. In a real-life Santa’s workshop, fifteen volunteers spent all day on December 23 wrapping presents.  They returned bright and early at 8 a.m. on Christmas Eve to deliver the gifts, just as the snow started to gently fall. 
“We are so grateful to our incredibly generous partners at St. Vincent de Paul and our flexible and energetic Norfolk Strong volunteers. Collectively, we’ve demonstrated the power of community and the importance of serving others in need, especially children. Now these kids have something of their own as they start their new lives with their families,” said Lucy Bullock-Sieger, Steering Committee Member of Norfolk Strong. 
“The St. Vincent de Paul Society exists to feed, clothe, house and heal individuals and families in our community who have nowhere else to turn for help. The parishes of St. Jude and St. Edward are excited that this is one of our first acts as a new chapter,” said Tom Melville of the Norfolk and Medfield St. Vincent de Paul Society. 
For more information about Norfolk Strong, visit www.NorfolkStrong.org. For more information about the St. Vincent de Paul Society, email [email protected].