News & Events

Three Can Make it All Possible

As December comes to an end so does the 15th year of the Santa Anonymous Winter Boot Program through TVCCA’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. We received referrals from local Elementary Schools, TVCCA’s Head Start and Little Learners Program. Community donors were matched with referred children in need of warm winter boots. With the help of generous individuals and businesses in the community we were able to provide warm winter boots to 722 children in Southern New London County and 460 children in Whindham County.

The referring community partners rely on the program each year and a lot of our donors participate year after year. Without the continued support of the community a lot of families would have a very hard time providing appropriate foot ware for their children during these tough economic times.

After receiving the referrals comes the publicity for donors and then the delivery of the boots to the schools and referring sites before Christmas. This year with the economic down turn I was not sure what the community response would be but everybody was very generous, the number of boots purchased ranged from 100 pairs to one pair. Then came the daunting thought of delivering the 722 pairs of boots to the schools. This is where the invaluable help of the New London Police Department came in. Officers Adkins, Tidd and Marcaccio delivered over 330 pairs of boots to 4 elementary schools in New London. Even though they had just come off of the midnight shift they tirelessly made several trips to Lawrence and Memorial Hospital Volunteer Department to bag and drop off boots. Without their continued commitment to help with the boot delivery for the second year the program would not have been the success that it was. Thank you for being committed to the community and helping to make a difference in whatever way possible. TVCCA’s Retried and Senior Volunteer Program is very grateful to have the New London Police Department as a partner in the Santa Anonymous Winter Boot Program.