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Donation
The Daughters of the Holy Spirit donated toys to TEEG. Left, Francoise G. Gauthier, director of Development/Advancement. Right, TEEG's executive director, Donna Grant. Linda Lemmon photo.
Gift of toy & joy
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- More than 40 families will have a brighter Christmas, thanks to the staff at the Daughters of the Holy Spirit's health care center.
In its third year of partnering, the center connects with the Thompson Ecumenical Empowerment Group (TEEG) and collects toys for families in need. Francoise G. Gauthier, PhD, director of Development/Advancement at Holy Spirit, said administrators, residents and all the employees look forward to the toy-raising. "They start asking about it early," Gauthier said. Many at the center brought in more than one gift. Every day, it seemed, "sisters would peak in" to check how high the stack of toys was under the center's Christmas tree.
Gautheir said the stack might have been a little bit lower than last year, "but not by much."
Donna Grant, executive director of TEEG, was overwhelmed with the stacks of toys. "We're doing this together," she said. Enough toys were gathered that when the U.S. Marine's Toys for Tots program called, Grant was able to tell them that she would have toys for TEEG's needs and the Marines could send toys they had collected whereever else they were needed.
"We will significantly meet our needs with this donation," she said. The Putnam Rotary Club also donated toys and more to TEEG, instead of its gift exchange. "We keep this close to home," Grant said. She added that the need is up slightly over 2009.
She said TEEG shoots for one or two gifts per child. We try to give them a big gift and one or two smaller ones."
She added, "We are all scaling back, but everyone will get something and that's the goal."
Grant said she is happy to be the "conduit" between need and community generosity.