In a Newtown tradition that dates back to 1959, this year about 150 volunteers participated in The Newtown Fund’s annual Depot Day holiday giving program, through which the fortunate help the needy, anonymously providing holiday gifts for children and adults.

Amid a flurry of activity at Fraser Woods Montessori School on the morning of December 15, Newtown Fund President Linda Bates said that this year, the Depot Day event helped 68 local needy families comprised of 100 adults and 60 children.

Those families, most of whom have registered for the program through the town’s Social Services Department, were the recipients of carloads of donated gifts, including practical household items, delivered to their homes that day.

The recipient families that are qualified to participate provide “wish lists” of the items they desire. Such lists are then given to families that have volunteered for the holiday giving program. The families that buy the gifts do not know the identities of those who receive the gifts.

On Depot Day, donors leave their gifts at Fraser Woods Montessori School on South Main Street, where the gifts are wrapped, and then they are delivered to recipients.

As recorded Christmas songs were played, local Boy Scouts pushed dollies loaded with gifts from the school gymnasium, through corridors, to a driveway where the volunteers methodically loaded vehicle after vehicle with hundreds of presents. Those vehicles then transported the items to recipients’ homes.

Ms Bates said that interest in the holiday giving program is strong, noting that there were more families willing to provide gifts this year than there were families receiving gifts.

The core group of volunteers that run Depot Day has been participating in the project for many years, according to Ms Bates. Planning for the annual event begins each September.

Besides gifts, the Newtown Fund also accepts financial donations. The fund is a 501(c)(3) registered charity, which makes all donations tax deductible. The group’s website is thenewtownfund.org.