Mourning town inundated with gifts, money and more
NEWTOWN, Conn. — Peter Leone was making deli sandwiches and working the register at his Newtown General Store when he got a phone call from Alaska. It was a woman who wanted to give him her credit card number.
“She said, ‘I’m paying for the next $500 of food that goes out your door,’ ” Leone said. “About a half hour later another gentleman called, I think from the West Coast, and he did the same thing for $2,000.”
Money, toys, food and other gifts have poured in from around the world as Newtown mourns the loss of 20 children and six school employees at Sandy Hook Elementary School a little more than a week ago. The 20-year-old shooter, Adam Lanza, killed his mother before attacking the school then killing himself. Police don’t know what set off the massacre.
On Saturday, all the town’s children were invited to the Edmond Town Hall in Newtown to choose from among hundreds of toys donated by individuals, organizations and toy stores. All the toys were inspected and examined by bomb-sniffing dogs before being sorted and put on card tables. The children could choose whatever they wanted.
The giving is a way for people beyond Newtown to deal with their own grief over the shooting.
“It’s their way of grieving,” said Bobbi Veach, who was fielding donations at the town hall building. “They say, ‘I feel so bad, I just want to do something to reach out.’ That’s why we accommodate everybody we can.”
The United Way of Western Connecticut said the official fund for donations had $2.8 million in it on Saturday. Others sent envelopes stuffed with cash to pay for coffee at the general store, and a shipment of cupcakes arrived from a gourmet bakery in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The Postal Service reported a sixfold increase in mail in town and set up a unique post office box to handle it. The parcels come decorated with rainbows and hearts drawn by schoolchildren.
Some letters arrive in packs of 26 identical envelopes — one for each family of the children and staff killed or addressed to the “First Responders” or just “The People of Newtown.”
“This is just the proof of the love that’s in this country,” said Postmaster Cathy Zieff.
The funerals for the victims were wrapping up after a wrenching week of farewells in Newtown. Services were scheduled Saturday in Connecticut for Josephine Gay, 7, and Ana Marquez-Greene, 6. A service was also planned in Utah for 6year-old Emilie Parker.
Many people are stopping by the Edmond Town Hall on Main Street to drop off food, or toys, or cash. About 60,000 teddy bears have been donated, said Ann Benoure, a social services caseworker who was working at the town hall.
The town of 27,000 with a median household income of $111,000 plans to donate whatever is left over to shelters or other charities.
Sean Gillespie of Colchester, who attended Sandy Hook Elementary, and Lauren Minor, who works at U.S. Foodservice in Norwich, came from Calvary Chapel in Uncasville with a car filled with food donated by U.S. Foodservice. But they were sent elsewhere because the refrigerators in Newtown were overflowing with donations.
“We’ll find someplace,” Gillespie said. “It won’t go to waste.”
Town officials have not decided what to do with all the money. A board of Newtown community leaders is being established to determine how it is most needed and will be best utilized, said Isabel Almeida with the local United Way, which has waived its administrative fees related to the fund.
She said some have wondered about building a new school for Sandy Hook students if the town decides to tear the school down, but that decision has not been made.
And while the town is grateful for all the sup- port, Almeida said, it has no more room for those gifts. Instead, she encouraged people to donate to others in memory of the Sandy Hook victims.
“Send those teddy bears to a school in your community or an organization that serves low-income children, who are in need this holiday season, and do it in memory of our children,” she said.