A blue Christmas for some
More than 300 families helped by police toy drive
WOONSOCKET – The late Ron Auger’s family couldn’t have been happier with the support they gained again this year for their annual collection of toys for the police department’s toy drive at their home at 329 Wood Ave
A steady supply of toys were dropped off by people who either know the Augers or just wanted to help make sure local children have a happy holiday when Christmas arrives.
Auger, a Woonsocket Police Department dispatcher, used to help out with the drive himself while working for the department and dealing with people coming into the station as the holidays arrived. When he died after ean illness in 2009, his family tdecided to continue his past support with the toy drop off at their home with the hope rof filling up the bed of his truck as many times as possible.
Ron’s sister, Christine eArel said the family had already filled Ron’s truck bed once and also the bed of a second truck as the 9th edition of their collection constinued at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.
“This is awesome. We received an amazing amount of help this year and a lot of people gave,” she said.
Although the family has held the collection on plenty of cold days like Sunday in the past, Arel said the snowstorm the day before did require a little more set up work than usual, including shoveling the sidewalk all along their home’s frontage on Wood Avenue.
“My girls were amazing and did most of the work,” Arel said of her teenage-daughters who always help with the collection project.
“Ron is definitely proud of us, I’m sure of that,” she said.
Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, who stopped by 329 Wood Avenue with Linda Plays, city human services director, said the collection was a credit to the Augers as well as their other partners in the annual drive, the police department, local businesses and individuals.
“The Augers collection this year has surpassed past years, and for the family it was really overwhelming and emotional,” she said.
In addition to the collection on Wood Avenue, the Augers and Arels also worked with the Woonsocket Knights of Columbus, Council 113, to put on a penny social at All Saints Parish on Nov. 25 as they have done for several years now.
The collection drive held each year was an example of how a local family, the local police department and the community as a whole “can all work together to get something done,” Baldelli-Hunt said.
“We are seeing more and more of that in our community where people are reaching out and getting involved in partnerships that they are developing and people are really feeling good about themselves because they are getting involved and contributing to their community,” Baldelli-Hunt said.
The toy drive run by the Woonsocket Police Department and its police union, Local 404 of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, also benefited from a breakfast put on by the members of Club Par-X, Gary McLaughlin, and Valley Transportation at 36 Stanley Ave., Sunday morning.
Det. Sgt. John Scully, the drive’s coordinator again this year, said he received requests to help over 300 families as of Sunday, an increase of about 100 families over last year.
Fortunately, the collection work has kept up with the demand for assistance, he said. “It has been a good year,” Scully said. The police department receives list of families to help from the Community Care Alliance and Scully does the distributions either right from the police station, where many toys are dropped off, or through the Christmas Party the New Beginnings meal program at All Saints Parish on Rathbun Street has scheduled for Friday from 5 to 7 p.m.
The meal program has already prepared a list of 70 families that will receive one present per child during the party, Scully said. Santa will also be attending and snacks and refreshments will be served.
This year, as a result of the hurricane damage in Puerto Rico over the summer, Scully said any toys left over after the distributions will be given to pastors of churches with connections to the U.S. Territory so they can be added to relief supplies.
Also helping out this year was the Woonsocket Lions Club, which turned over a check for $500 to buy needed items, and a River Street business man who gave a donation of $2,000, Scully said.
Running additional toy collections or maintaining drop off boxes at their businesses were Luc’s Bar & Grill on River Street, Terry’s Tire and Auto on Blackstone Street, Renaissance Tattoo on Main Street, and The Salon on Mendon Road. St. Joseph’s Veterans Association and Beacon Charter High School for the Arts also ran collections, Scully said. For more information on making donations contact Scully at the police station at 7678857.