Residents continue to give and give

By NATHAN LAMB | Milton Independent Staff Writer
mireporter@mac.com

MHS held a toy drive this December, which was launched in large part by the efforts of students Brittaney Rice, Danielle Rice, Moriah Benson and Katie Fereday. The drive collected 85 toys.

In April, The Milton Independent published a special section saluting all the volunteers and the organizations they serve. It was an impressive list of people who donate their time, money and energy, many of whom serve multiple causes.

And the list continues with the following more recent acts of giving:

In December, students and staff from Milton High School held a toy drive competition that collected 85 toys for children in needy families from the area.
The drive was suggested by students who wanted to help others this Christmas. Also involved was office administrator Kathy Therriault, who expressed hope the drive will be more than a one-shot deal.

“For the first time, I think it went really well,” she said. “I’d love to see this happen every year.”

The toys were collected by local toy drive coordinator Charlotte Parot, who has been spearheading the Milton Family Community Center’s collections since Thanksgiving.

The majority of her efforts culminated in a distribution event for 130 families at the local grange hall on Dec. 15. Parot described the set-up for that event as an “ocean” of toys, which was provided by generous donations from public.

“There were a lot of smiling faces there last Saturday,” said Charlotte’s husband and seemingly ever-present toy drive assistant Arnie.

While the student toy drive came after the big distribution event, Parot said she’s been contacted by more families seeking help. The remainder, she added, would be on-hand for emergencies during the year.

The December toy drives wrapped-up what was a busy year for volunteerism in Milton. Here are a few of the examples we came across when looking through our back issues:

The food shelf at the Milton Family Community Center received a major boost in late November when the local Joseph Marotti company donated 10,000 pounds of food for holiday dinners. The food—which included a turkey for every family—was distributed to 100 families the weekend before Thanksgiving at the Community Center.

Children from the Milton After School Kids (MASK) helped get the holiday food drives started early by collecting food through October. The effort culminated with spirit week, where kids in the schools collected 502 food items in two days.

Santa Claus and his helpers toured Milton on board a decorated “Santa Bus” as part of the local toy drive to benefit less-fortunate families. Volunteer Ed Couture said he’d never seen that many toys in one place.

The work of volunteers who keep the local Meals on Wheels program running was featured in a September issue of The Milton Independent. The program delivers hot lunches to the homes of disabled people and income-eligible seniors, and is very much a partnership of the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging and local volunteers.

CVAA provides the food, while Middle Road resident Ted Beaudoin coordinates volunteers who do the noon-time drop-offs. “Somebody’s got to,” said Beaudoin, who added he’s always looking for more volunteers.

The local Boy Scouts also helped out those who are less fortunate last February by providing 35-40 meals for the homeless at Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS) in Burlington.

The scouts first discussed homelessness as a group during a camping trip to the Intervale, which has a seasonal homeless population; shortly afterward they scouts met with people at COTS and arranged a bottle drive to purchase the food.

Milton Elementary Students conducted a month-long change drive in March, which raised over $2,700 for the Children’s Miracle Network, a non-profit organization that funds children’s hospitals across America.

Six-year old Cameron Mercer also collected a chunk of change in April, when he went door-to-door collecting money for the March of Dimes. He collected over $300, which will be used to benefit premature babies.

In November, the Milton Knitting Group donated 50 hats, 28 pairs of mittens, and 12 scarves to the nurses’ office at Milton Elementary. The school nurse keeps warm items on hand for the kids, but their stockpile was eliminated by the mold problem the previous year.