Buying gifts for friends and family and food for Christmas feasts make money tight for most at this time of year. Nevertheless, enough Monroe residents donated presents for members of struggling families, whose holiday wishes were hung from ornaments on Giving Trees throughout town, to fill the Council Chambers of Monroe Town Hall with sack loads of wrapped gifts last week.
Maryann Kalm, coordinator of Social Services for the town, oversees the annual program.
"Even though a lot of people are struggling themselves, the response to this program is still overwhelming," she said.
Giving Trees have ornaments with a person's gender, age and desired gift. Donors take an ornament off a tree and shop for the gift. Kalm said 100 Monroe families received gifts in the program — six more than last year. The program is anonymous and the families in need of assistance pick everything up.
From Nov. 22 to Dec. 11, Giving Trees were on both floors of Edith Wheeler Memorial Library, in the Monroe Senior Center, at Monroe Town Hall, in all three elementary schools — Stepney, Monroe and Fawn Hollow — and at both Newtown Savings Bank locations (535 Monroe Turnpike and 477 Main Street).
Kerstin Winkler volunteered wrapping and bagging gifts last week.
She looked over the rows of seats in the Council Chambers covered with presents and said, "It shows the extreme generosity of the whole town. There were over 1,000 gifts."
Kalm said Monroe is one of few towns that does not place an age limit on gift recipients. "We take care of the whole family," she added.
Jennifer Aguilar volunteered preparing the gifts for pickup last week. Kalm said numerous individuals and organizations also helped the effort, including: Jockey Hollow Middle School's staff and PTO, Masuk High School's staff, the Monroe Women's Club and Monroe Newcomers & Neighbors.
Kalm said, "There were lots of Santa's elves around the community."
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