One High School Student Made A Difference

By Shannon Hicks

Like a bride on her wedding day who has to remember to stop, look around and take in the events that are surrounding her before everything she has so carefully planned is finished, Breanne Lubinsky kept looking around at the food being donated to FAITH Food Pantry during Monday’s Labor Day Parade and saying, “Oh my gosh!”

Over the summer Breanne had decided to do a food collection during the parade, asking everyone who attended the annual event to bring with them one can in a plastic shopping bag. The cans and bags would to be collected during the course of the parade, with everything being put into two trucks Breanne and her family had arranged to use for the day, and then driven directly to the food pantry in Sandy Hook. The food drive was quickly dubbed “1 Can Make(s) A Difference.”

Her goal was to bring 1,000 items to the food pantry.

By the time the parade ended and the group drove four truck loads of food to St John’s Episcopal Church, home of FAITH Food Pantry, Breanne’s efforts resulted in a donation of 2,455 items (cans, boxes and even some glass jars that had, in many cases, been carefully wrapped to protect from breakage), $190 in cash, $25 gift cards each from Big Y and Super Stop & Shop, and a number of Big Y coins.

“Everything we planned worked, oh my gosh, unbelievably well,” Breanne reported Tuesday afternoon. The Newtown High School sophomore had help from family and friends on Monday, with fellow Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, her parents, and others all donning orange T-shirts and helping with the collection. The group was in the parade’s fifth division, and those along the parade route were thrilled to see them when they finally arrived.

“A lot of people yelled out ‘Good idea!’ or they clapped as we went by,” said Linda Lubinsky, Breanne’s mom.

“We got tons of pasta and cereal,” Breanne said. “People really paid attention to the request list.” A few weeks ago Breanne worked with FAITH Food Pantry Co-chair Lee Paulsen to come up with a wish list of items the pantry would like to see as a result of the food drive. The list was published in The Bee and also posted on fliers around town.

“There was also a few miscellaneous things — crackers, cake batter, ketchup — but it was all great,” said Breanne. The Rotary Club of Newtown, which had a food stand set up at The Pleasance on Monday, donated packets of condiments.

“They were going to throw away their leftover condiments. We had this assembly line going when we were unloading the trucks at the food pantry, and all of these condiments started coming down the line,” she said with a laugh. “Instead of tossing them, Rotary gave us their ketchup and mustard.”

The Lubinskys had arranged to use two pickup trucks, and had hoped to fill those during the parade. But by the time they reached Edmond Town Hall, one of the trucks was already overflowing, so it pulled over and the group unloaded its contents at the home of John and Sherry Bermingham at 43 Main Street. The now-empty truck continued along the parade route, catching up with the second truck, which by then was also overflowing and needed to be emptied.

The collection crew included Jack Benedict, Austin Cirella, Tyler Coleman, Hanna DeFlumeri, Ryan Diluffo, Tom Diluffo, Peter Lubinsky, Sara McMann, Andrew Nichols, Craig Nichols, Matt Rosa, Emily Rowe, Ruth Rowe, Rob Russo, Molly Sheluck, Stephanie Shubert, and Will Shubert.

Arrangements had been made to drive all of the donations to FAITH Food Pantry immediately after the parade. Breanne and her friends were met by Lee Paulsen, who had the church open and ready for them, so the group went right to work.

“These kids are all wonderful,” she said this week. “They took everything out of the trucks on Monday, and then they came back on Tuesday at 8 am to help us sort everything. We didn’t even have to ask, they just came.

“We are so grateful to Breanne, and her family, and everyone. She’s a great girl,” Mrs Paulsen said.

Like the Parade Committee, Breanne is already thinking ahead to 2009. Craig Nichols and the Hanna family have both promised the use of their trucks again, and St John’s warden Bruce Moulthrop has also said that he will provide a truck for collection during the 2009 Labor Day Parade.

FAITH Food Pantry is open Tuesdays from 10 am until noon and Thursdays from 6 to 8 pm. If you missed getting a donation to Breanne on Monday but cannot get to the food pantry during their regular hours, drop a donation at The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, and we will get the donation to them for you.