January 02, 2013 BERLIN – Toys for Tots, a Marine Corps program, partnered up with Teens helping Teens this year to give away more toys than ever this holiday season.
Teens helping Teens is part of the Project Youth Gorham After School Program directed by Naomi Levesque. The Salvation Army supplied a "Giving Tree" and placed it at Wal-Mart where names were selected by a group of teens from the program. The group raised a substantial amount of funds and gave away many presents to local teens.
"Our mission is to make sure no teen goes without a gift to open this Christmas," said Levesque. "Our helpers took a lot of time picking out gifts, and had a lot of fun doing it," she continued.
On December 19 and 20 at St. Joseph Church on Third Avenue, children and teens came and picked out their toys. Many tables displayed a large variety of toys and were labeled by age group for children. Teens helping Teens had a separate table.
Eleven teens from Gorham High that are part of the Project Youth Gorham After School Program volunteered their time to pick out presents and select the applicants from the giving tree. Heather Coulombe, 20, of Berlin, escorted the students to Walmart, and to the church to drop off the gifts. She started as an intern for the program while she was a high school student, and later got a position as part of the support staff. "This is our way of giving back to the community," she said.
Gilles Laramee, a Marine Corps veteran and chairman of Toys for Tots since 2000, said that this year "was the best year ever." Prior to the scheduled time of gift-giving at the church, Laramee volunteered his time to set up, un-package the toys and placed them on the respective tables. There was something for every child and youth to choose from. Each family had to apply at Catholic Charities to qualify to receive gifts.
Donations were given by Toy's R' Us, Catholic Charities, Congregational Church, St. Barnaby's Church, The Ming House restaurant staff, and by community members during a road toll held on December 12.
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