If you happened to enter the Rochester Town Hall on the morning of December 20, you would have thought the public meeting room resembled something from the North Pole, like Santa’s workshop, or Santa’s kitchen, for that matter.
You would have seen Rochester Facilities Manager Andrew Daniel standing by the sun-filled window, surrounded by large gift baskets and cellophane wrapping paper, fashioning the most perfect Christmas bow one had ever seen.
It’s clearly Christmas at Town Hall, and a tradition amongst town employees and members of town boards and committees is to pool their money together to help a few families in Rochester have a merrier Christmas.
The town hall folks have always made donations this time of year to local charitable efforts at Christmas, but starting last year Daniel thought it might be worth expanding to include just a few families who might need a boost this time of year preparing a sumptuous Christmas dinner.
Last year, Conservation Agent Laurell Farinon, in charge of organizing the donations, and donation collectors Amanda Baptiste and Patrice LaForest gathered enough money to make three large gift baskets chock full of all things merry – sugar cookie mix, frosting, potatoes, carrots, stuffing, the fixings for a green bean casserole, gravy, and sparkling cider, topped off with a $100 gift card to pay for the turkey or ham and other perishables. There were even some Christmas decorations and a family board game stuffed inside the clothesbasket that contained all the goodies.
This year, though, with $1,400 in donations that will be split 50-50 between the gift basket fund and other town Christmas charities, there was enough to provide a Christmas meal for four families.
“We had some big donors on some of the committees,” said Daniel. “I really didn’t think we were going to have this much.”
Daniel contacts Rochester Memorial School Principal Derek Medeiros, who helps find the families who would benefit most from the gift baskets, and on Tuesday, Daniel was heading over to the school to drop the baskets off – that is, once he finished another three fine bows.
“He makes the best bows,” Baptiste joked about Daniel, who was concerned about his reputation with his “biker friends” once word got out that he could wrap a mean gift basket. (Don’t worry, Andrew. We’ll only tell a few people.)
“Goodness shines through,” said Daniel. “This town has some incredible people working for it. It’s the generosity of the staff that makes this happen.”
By Jean Perry
