New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Secret Snowman aims to brighten season
GUILFORD — There’s a novel approach to shopping local this holiday season that might also bring smiles.
While you are out buying presents, pick up a small gift for a someone you may not know and deliver it anonymously.
It’s the Around Town Secret Snowman-Guilford, created by teens Nicky and Gianna Amter to support local businesses and, at the same time, spread some needed holiday cheer.
Community members interested in participating can visit the Around Town Secret Snowman-Guilford Facebook page, send a message with their name, address and age range and they’ll be matched with someone to add to their holiday gift-giving list.
For those not on Facebook, email gng3@att.net to get on the list.
In turn, the person’s name will be given to another individual who has signed up. Every gift is delivered anonymously, and the team suggests a gift in the $25 range.
About 62 people have signed up so far, from children to adults.
“It’s a small token that you’re going out and buying,” said Catherine
McKiernan Marganski, who had a gift delivered to someone and was awaiting her gift in return.
“It’s helping a small business, but it’s also making the person you’re giving it to, smile,” she said. “Who knows what that person is going through, and just to make someone smile is a nice feeling.”
The brother and sister team, 16 and 15 years old, respectively, came up with the idea with help from their mother, Mary Amter.
“With the pandemic, small businesses have been affected a lot, so we thought we could do something that helps with the small businesses, while making people happy during the holiday season,” said Nicky Amter, a Guilford High School junior. “It’s a winwin for everyone involved.”
Paula Jean Burns, owner of Rock Paper Sistas on the Guilford Green, has been delivering packages since the pandemic started, but a recent delivery for Around Town Secret SnowmanGuilford was a bit different.
“It was so much fun to drive up to house, knock on the door and leave it on the steps,” she said. “I just think it’s fun.”
Burns was equally excited about the project being started by two high school students.
“I think it’s wonderful because if I learned anything through this pandemic, I learned the value and the blessing of community,” she said, “where people are reaching out not just for a sale or a business, but truly to connect, truly to support emotionally, financially.
“So, to have our younger people see this and pick up on it, it speaks volumes to the quality of our community,” she said.
Flutterby owner Beth O’Bymachow applauded the teens’ mission of supporting local businesses.
“It should be a movement,” she said. “The movement of shopping local has just been growing for the last several years, but right now it’s at its peak.
“The integrity of the business down here is what’s at stake,” she said, referring to herself and all the businesses that line the Green.
“People want to support this and they don’t want to see anybody in a bad situation,” she said.
For Mary Amter, having her children develop their own community project was heartwarming.
“I’m super excited,” she said. “They’ve helped me for years do one of our favorite things, which is the toy drive that we do every year. They dress up in silly characters. We do that for Yale New Haven Hospital. They’ve kind of taken off on their own thing, but it has a giving aspect, which I love.”