C M HOL SEC page 13 Y K
The gifts are great, but so is the need Help the underprivileged enjoy the holidays by Peter C. Mastrosimone Editor-in-Chief
This year’s Queens Chronicle Toy Drive, our 18th annual, has certainly been a success so far, and if you happened to come by our office just after a contributor dropped off gifts, you might think it’s been a resounding success. But the fact is donations are down this year, even though the need is as great as ever, maybe more so. The decline is more than understandable, given the circumstances. Five years of a weak economy. Borough unemployment hovering around 8 percent. Hurricane Sandy. These aren’t, however, factors the children at the Dove House domestic violence shelter in eastern Queens necessarily understand. Certainly not the many infants whose mothers fled there with them. Or the homeless kids at the Metro Family Residence in Elmhurst. Or the storm victims in South Queens and the Rockaways who were living middle-class lives one day and lost everything they owned the next. These are the children you’ll be assisting by contributing to our toy and gift drive. “I just feel that we should be helping our neighbors, whether they’re right next door to us or farther away, and there’s a great need to reach out to the victims of Hurricane Sandy,” said Marcie Galatioto of the Glendale-Maspeth United Methodist Church, which, along with the Glendale Volunteer Ambulance Corps, will help us distribute those gifts bound for storm-struck families. “The children shouldn’t be deprived, and particularly because they lost so much, we should try to make
sure that they have a nice Christmas.” Galatioto — a retiree from the City Department of Homeless Services who knows need when she sees it — added, “Their parents can’t deal with everything right now, and I’m sure they appreciate some help with getting things to the children.” Many of our readers are giving that help. This week we recognize donors Pat Lynch of Kew Gardens, Robert and Kathleen Giglio of Elmhurst, Vincent Ciccia of Flushing, Kathy Chevannes of Rego Park, Michael Schreiber of Little Neck, Arlene Walsh and John Morstadt of Bayside, Dorothy Adams of Rego Park, Lucille E. of Jackson Heights, Mr. and Mrs. Dom Marino of Woodhaven and Peter and Lillian of Brooklyn. Next week we hope to put your name on the list. Together we’ll be helping hundreds of children this year, as always. Many of them are asking for educational games like LeapFrog. There are babies whose mothers need disposable diapers. There are teenagers hoping for video games they can play on the Sony PSP or Microsoft X-Box systems. And so many others who’d be happy with a doll, a coloring book, a model car. In their letters to Santa, they all say they’ve been good this year! Let’s be good to them. Your gifts — always new and unwrapped, please, so they can go to the right recipients — may be brought to our office from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. We’re at 62-33 Woodhaven Blvd. in Rego Park, about a quarter mile south of Long Island Expressway Exit 19, on the east side of the street, one door away from the corner of 62nd Road.
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Book Now For The Holidays!
(Myrtle Ave. & adjacent side streets from Wyckoff Ave. to Fresh Pond Road)
2012-2013
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Holiday Shopping & Dining Guide • 2012
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After hours, presents may be dropped off next door at Barosa restaurant, at 62-29 Woodhaven Blvd., or Barosa Brick Oven Pizza, at 62-37. Please leave your name and the name of your community with any gifts brought after hours so we may thank you along with the donors who come to our office directly. We’re taking gifts until Dec. 20 so they can go to the children by Christmas. Please bring the holiday spirit to life, and call us with any questions at (718) 205-8000. i
OVER ESCORTED BUS TOURS TO CHOOSE FROM!
Huge Holiday Sale!
Sponsored by Myrtle Avenue Business Improvement District –– FIND US ON FACEBOOK –– 60-82 Myrtle Avenue, Ridgewood, NY 11385 (718) 366-3806, 381-7974
Chronicle intern Trevina Nicholson shows off just a few of the gifts PHOTO BY PETER C. MASTROSIMONE our readers have brought in so far.
L & M TOURS
MYRTLE AVENUE
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Page 13 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, December 6, 2012
H oliday Shopping & Dining Guide